Sonic the Hedgehog: Human Beginnings
by Flute Chick
Summary: Who was Sonic the Hedgehog? Find out as we follow a boy named Eric Sarali on a great adventure . . . Rated T for suggested violence
1. 1: To Start

(A/N: My first fanfiction! I hope you guys like it!)

It wasn't that I loved being almost late to class, or that I was hanging out at a bar after curfew. For crying out loud, I was saving the world! And in my other two forms, no one would recognize me, so of course I still got in trouble for it. Shadow has it easier with that most of the time, after all, his family knew the truth about him—they adopted him knowing most of the truth, sixteen years ago.

Oh, by the way, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. My friends call me Eric Sarali. I should back up, huh?

Five months ago, if you had seen me at all, you would have seen a kind of pale kid with short black hair, a kind of pointed nose, scrawny limbs, and bright green eyes. I usually wore jeans or sweats and whatever t-shirt I happened to grab each day—they tended to be video-game oriented. It was usually Sonic the Hedgehog stuff, which is pretty ironic now. I went to school at Washington High in the town of Wakewater, right up next to Lake Michigan.

My two best friends were Miles Prower and Amy Hills. Miles was an eight-year-old kid that was so smart, he was in in my freshman class in high school that particular year. He was funny as well as intelligent, and he actually tutored me for a little while in eighth grade. He had tanned skin and dark blonde/ light brown hair. He had light blue eyes and always wore a bomber jacket and jeans. Amy was my best friend since kindergarten and the prettiest girl I know . . . I mean, the nicest girl I know . . . anyway . . . Amy had a heart-shaped face, a small round nose, dimples when she smiled, a blonde bob of hair just above her shoulders, and she usually wore a solid colored dress with a matching headband. I think she had about ten different shades of pink.

Since we were neighbors, we walked to school together on that first day of high school—luckily enough for us, it was just the freshman welcome day, where we could figure out where our classes were and how our schedules worked. Amy and Miles were on either side of me.

"I wonder if John or Scarlet will be in our classes?" mused Amy after a little bit.

It was with disgust that I replied: "Of course they will!"

John had beat me up at least every other hour at school since third grade. It only got worse every year because he got bigger fast, and I only grew a little taller. He was already taller than Miles and I combined, and three times as big around as me—he was always in football or training, no matter the time of year. He had dark brown hair and a big, blocky face that went with his hugeness. The only thing that made him seem any different than the other jocks (besides the fact that he was the bulkiest of them all) was the violet eyes he had—they were strange, but no one ever asked if he had contacts, because he would probably haul them into the dumpster out in the back of the school if they did.

His on-and-off girlfriend, Scarlet, was the stereotypical cheerleader, except for the fact that she was very, very smart. Scarlet had wavy red hair to the middle of her back, was super skinny, and always had perfect makeup on. She got straight A's and was the captain for the cheer squad—she was always at the top of the stunts because she was tiny. Not to mention she viciously attacked any girl she didn't like, and never got caught. They seemed to be perfect for each other—John was captain of the football team and took both karate and boxing, and Scarlet was captain of the cheerleading squad and took both dance and judo. However, they fought constantly over the most random things.

When we got to school, the doors were still closed and locked, and people were hanging around on the front lawn. I immediately spotted them with their group of followers, talking about their summers. I scanned the crowd for anyone else and sighed. The only person I _didn't_ recognize from eighth grade was a guy my age with white-blonde hair and pale, bone white skin. He wore all black, and it was clear he didn't want to talk. The doors finally opened and we all flooded into the halls to find our lockers and classes. As I passed by the new guy, I noticed a scar across his right cheek, from the edge of his lip to the outside corner of his eye. It was barely visible, but it was pretty big—what could have caused it?

The thoughts were driven out of my mind as I looked for my locker, which was in the section near the end of the hall. I got the top one, and Miles got the one below mine, putting his books in. Amy was messing around with the lock on hers, next to me, and an empty one was below hers. Next to the empty one was the new guy, and on the other side of him were both Scarlet and John. I put away my books and headed for my fist class—Biology.

When John turned from Scarlet and his locker, he sneered.

"So you decided to show your face around here, huh?" John came closer to me, and I had to crane my neck to see his face.

"You'd better watch it, Sarali, or you'll never survive high school. I hear it's really rough . . ." he cracked his knuckles. I backed up quickly.

"And what do we have here? Amy, testing out the retro look again?" asked Scarlet, and Amy turned red. She started to stammer, just like usual, that it was _her_ style and not anyone else's business. If things went like normal, John would suddenly turn and try to beat up Miles, and I'd get a black eye protecting him, and Amy would be crying when Scarlet was done with her. As John turned, something changed from the normal, though.

"Don't even think about it," said a sudden, low, smooth voice. Everyone snapped their attention to the speaker: the new guy, who I still didn't know the name of.

"What—did—you—just—say—to—me?" snarled John, looking like a bull ready to charge. He'd run him right over.

"You heard me," he said calmly, crossing his arms.

"What's your name, new guy?" John asked, but I got the feeling that he had meant: _what should I engrave on your tombstone, new guy?_

"I'm Damon, Damon Von Garthe, and I'm heading to class." He walked away like it was nothing to ignore the biggest guy in the building. Before John could turn on us again, Miles, Amy and I ran to class—we got into our seats just as the bell rang.

The teacher was not exactly the most pleasant person in the world.

He was bald, sweaty-looking, and fat, and had wisps of a mustache on his red, blotchy face as well as a plain, beige outfit. I happened to be taller than him, which was saying something, considering that I was only five-foot-four at the time. His glasses looked like they were pinching his head and rested on his huge nose.

"My name is Mr. Namggerd. I expect you all to follow the rules on the class syllabus, which should be on your desk. Since you all just say at the first seat available, I am going to assign where you sit—the chart is on the board." His voice was scratchy and wheezy, like he had just run a marathon and had no water. We all got up and looked at the chart, finding our spots after we got close enough to see it. I was in the second row, second seat from the left at one table—each one had two chairs facing the board. In front of me was Miles, and to his left was Amy. Scarlet ended up being behind me, with John next to her. An empty table was to my right, and the person I was sharing my table with was Damon.

We all half-listened to his lecture on how he wouldn't tolerate lateness, goofing off, or talking. " . . . I will pay special attention to you throughout the first quarter in order to make sure that you understand my rules clearly." I shuddered inwardly, thinking that he sounded more like a prison warden than a teacher. The rest of the morning moved on much the same way: We'd go to each class, get a speech from each teacher on rules and expectations, and move on. Next was P. E, then Algebra, then art. Then, finally, came lunch.

"Amy! Miles!" I called out, seeing them coming in from the other end of the cafeteria.

"Hey Eric!" said Miles. We looked for a table to sit at, either not knowing anyone or not wanting to sit with most of them. I saw Damon alone at one table, picking at his Spanish rice.

"Maybe we should sit with him," Amy said, pointing him out. I nodded and we went over.

"Can we sit here?" asked Miles. He shrugged and motioned for us to take our seats if we wanted them.

"Thanks for earlier," I said after a few minutes of silence, "John's been a pain since anyone can remember. Scarlet too."

"No problem. I had worse before here—I don't take bullies. That's kind of how I got this," Damon motioned to his scar.

"Whoa . . . so where did you go before here?" I asked. He shifted uncomfortably.

"I was tutored at home. It was a while ago, and I hung out with some neighborhood kids who were dropouts . . . they got a little rough one day and my mom decided to send me here. That John kid is nothing on them—he wouldn't be so bad if he got a clue that the 'I'm-bigger-so-you-can't-take-me' gig isn't going to work for the rest of his life. And Scarlet needs to lose the holier-than-thou attitude . . . then they might actually be okay," he reasoned.

"You're right. But they'll never get it, especially John: he's such a knucklehead," chuckled Miles. That got a good laugh out of all of us.

"So do you play Sonic the Hedgehog games?" I asked. I played a lot of them, and I happened to have two Wi-Fi accounts. Amy and Miles knew that, but they only knew the name of the one I played with against them: the other, I used constantly against random players, and that was really how I got good. I was kind of surprised when he nodded.

"Yeah, almost daily. Shadow the Hedgehog is my favorite."

"I prefer Sonic Heroes," said Miles.

"Sonic and the Black Knight is the one I'm the best at," Amy added.

"Hm . . . Sonic Adventure 2," I decided, before asking, "What's your username on the network?"

"Well, you know mine's Rose 4567," said Amy.

"And mine's Prodigy 540," said Miles.

"Black Arms General," said Damon as I said the name of my other account, "Speed Demon 1." The two gaped at us.

"You two are the best players I know! You're pretty much famous!" said Amy with a slight squeak in her voice.

"Well, I suggest a rematch soon," I said. We were often rivals, as we were really evenly matched.

"I agree," he said, folding his arms in a very Shadow-like pose. The bell rang and we headed off to our other classes. I had English, then Spanish (No comprende!), and finally study hall. I stared at the clock, willing it to tick faster, when finally three o'clock came around. I headed home with Miles and Amy, and they went into their houses first before I passed the one alley that I should have known not to look at.

_Flashback:_

_Six-year old Eric is taking a shortcut home with a boy that looks exactly like him except for hair and eye color. The other boy has yellow-amber eyes and strawberry blonde hair rather than green eyes and black hair. They are both laughing and talking as they go when something strange happens. A purple light flashes, and it becomes a strange glowing hole in thin air, leading to what appears to be the edge of a cliff at nighttime. A man with a jumpsuit and a visor covering his face steps out of the hole and grabs Eric by the back of his t-shirt, and Eric starts kicking and screaming. No one comes. The other boy stomps on the man's foot, and the man drops Eric. Angrily, he grabs the other boy and drags him into the hole, which disappears in another flash of light. Eric is alone, and yells:_

"_JASON!" _

_End Flashback_

I shook my head and kept moving. I had only told Miles and Amy about the portal part; my parents, the police, and everyone else just knew that my twin brother Jason was kidnapped by a guy in a jumpsuit with a visor helmet on. I still wondered if he was okay, or if he was even still alive. I put on a brave face most of the time, but occasionally, I would have a dream about an older version of him, scarred and battered, smiling at me and saying, "Long time, no see, Eric," in that same cliff area. I didn't understand where it was or even _what_ it was, but I saw it, and I refused to think I was hallucinating or crazy. When I got home, I quickly let my parents know that I was going for a walk before heading back out.

As I walked, I couldn't help but stop in the alley. Jason and I had been best friends as well as brothers—this had been before Miles was even born, and Amy had been an okay friend for both of us then, which was pretty good considering we thought girls were gross at that age. I imagined, every day, that somehow he was going to be found. It depended on whether I was feeling optimistic or not if he was dead or alive in my fantasies. I kicked a rock and realized that I was standing right where the glowing . . . portal . . . thing . . . had been. I looked straight up at one of the first few stars to appear in the sky as the sun was most of the way below the horizon. _I wish I had the time to go look for him . . . I wish I were strong enough to go through with it . . . I wish I were fast enough to be able to catch up with him, wherever he might be . . ._ Was the star getting brighter? _I wish I could be a hero so that doesn't have to happen again to anyone else . . . losing their family . . . their friends . . ._ I realized that it was actually something, a meteor maybe, coming towards me.

I dived forward in an attempt to dodge it and succeeded when a bright flash and the sound of a bomb going off erupted behind me. When the dust somewhat settled around me, I got up slowly and looked at the crater, in which a dark blue gem half the size of my head was sitting. It glowed brightly when I got closer, and started to float. _Alright, Eric, so you're crazy now. What else is new?_ I thought as I reached out to touch it.


	2. 2: Enter Tails, Amy, and Egghead

(A/N: Well, here's chapter 2! And no, this is not supposed to be like any other fanfiction . . . I know it's similar to another one, and I've read it, but I came up with this idea on my own. This will turn out differently, trust me. I hope you guys like it!)

I dived forward in an attempt to dodge it and succeeded when a bright flash and the sound of a bomb going off erupted behind me. When the dust somewhat settled around me, I got up slowly and looked at the crater, in which a dark blue gem half the size of my head was sitting. It glowed brightly when I got closer, and started to float. _Alright, Eric, so you're crazy now. What else is new?_ I thought as I reached out to touch it.

When my fingers made contact, it glowed so brightly that I couldn't even see anything but white anymore, even when I took my hand away. I'm still not sure how this transitioned into a dream of some kind, but suddenly, I was standing in front of a mirror. Two other mirrors were on either side of me. The one in front of me was normal and reflected the same totally freaked out face that I expected—black hair, skinny, green eyes, kind of pointed nose, and the same clothes I was wearing two seconds ago.

I turned to the right and saw Sonic the Hedgehog staring back at me; the only feature that assured me somehow that I was staring at myself was the same green eyes that I had, flicking about as I took in the entire look. I moved my hand to the top of my head and patted it, and so did Sonic. _Weirder and weirder,_ was all I could think. I then turned to the left.

The other mirror reflected what seemed to be a human version of Sonic: blue hair that was pretty long compared to what I had, the same exact green eyes that I had, he was a little taller than me, and less scrawny, and his face was a little less pointy and angled, with a stronger jaw and a slightly deeper skin tone than what I had. He seemed a little older all around. Also, my normal face wasn't exactly as clear of zits as this one . . . I wasn't complaining about it.

He wore a blue hooded jacket over a white t-shirt that said "Speed Demon" in bold, blue letters, blue jeans, human-sized Sonic sneakers, and white gloves. I tried a little half-smirk and a thumbs-up, and bam! It was obvious that I was Sonic. A voice boomed around me, and it made me think of Tikal in Sonic Adventure. "To change into one of these forms, concentrate on that form and recite this within your mind: Chaos Transformation. Be the hero you wished to be . . ." The mirrors and the whiteness dissolved and I was standing in the alley, with the crater gone, with what I took to be a Chaos emerald in my hand.

"This is insane," I breathed. I saw my reflection in the now faintly glowing gem—I was just regular me again. I was unsure—_should I try? Well, the worst that could happen is nothing and making me feel stupid . . . why not?_ And I concentrated on Sonic the Hedgehog, thinking: _Chaos Transformation._ The gem glowed again and I closed my eyes, feeling a rush of wind. When it stopped, I opened my eyes, looking at a reflection of a blue hedgehog.

"GAH!" I yelped, dropping the emerald. I looked down at my hands and feet—the classic Sonic gloves and shoes replaced what had been normal human hands and white Nikes. I shakily grabbed the emerald again and began to run. Suddenly, everything around me disappeared as I picked up speed. It felt like I was alone, the wind in my face my only companion. I whooped at the feeling—it was amazing, free, and _awesome._

I started to slow down and realized that I was near my house after only a few seconds, when it would have taken at least a good minute or two normally to run back. I concentrated again, this time on myself. _Chaos Transformation!_ And I looked at the Chaos Emerald in my palm. I hid it behind my back as I walked in. My mom and dad were in the living room, so I stuck it in my backpack before joining them.

"Hey, hon. Anything interesting on your walk?" asked Mom.

"Nah, pretty uneventful."

The next morning, I checked my backpack to be sure that last night had really happened. It did: the emerald was there, faintly glowing. I was a little more positive as I walked with Miles and Amy to school.

"So . . . did anything _interesting_ happen last night?" asked Amy, noticing the spring in my step.

"Um . . . not really?" I said, making it more of a question to see if they would buy it. They didn't.

"Me neither, unless you count . . ." Miles trailed off, as if he didn't really want to say either.

"All right, since we've all obviously got something on our minds, I'll start," I said, stopping, "But you have to swear not to tell anyone." They both nodded, and I trusted them with that. I looked around, and no one was in sight. I took out the emerald and showed them. They gasped.

"You too?" asked Miles. I sucked in a breath.

"What?" He pulled out a yellow version of the same Chaos Emerald. We turned to Amy.

"No way . . . and Amy? What about you?" I asked. She held out a green one.

"Then you guys . . . realize . . . that these are Chaos Emeralds, right?" I asked in a low voice, putting mine back in my bag.

"Duh. I turned into Tails the Fox with this thing," said Miles, as if he were saying that he finished his homework in an hour, which was a normal occurrence.

"I turned into Amy Rose. I like the hammer," Amy grinned mischievously.

"And who are you, Eric?" asked Miles.

"Isn't it obvious?" I winked, smirked, and gave them a thumbs-up.

"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, and I nodded.

"I wonder if there are others . . ." I said aloud as we hurried to school. It was hard, still, to process the fact that I was really Sonic the hedgehog. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was awesome, but little Eric Sarali was never exactly high on self-esteem . . . or muscle . . . or social status . . . so it was a little unreal to think of myself as the easygoing, super-fast hero that saved the day on countless occasions. It was easier, though, with my friends in on it—at least it made sense that Amy was Amy and Miles was Tails. The personalities fit.

When I got to my locker, I saw Scarlet and John whispering to each other, John's arm around her shoulder. I listened carefully, curious because they never had secrets from the school and always wanted everyone to know what they were talking about. Plus, they never looked anxious like they did then.

"Look . . . don't you dare . . . master . . ."

"Steal . . . gem . . . knucklehead . . ." I stopped bothering after that and shook my head. It was a bunch of gibberish to me at that point. I grabbed my books, managed to hide my Chaos Emerald in my backpack, and headed off to Biology, which was torture, as expected. The day was lacking in interest in general and I was tapping my foot in study hall, waiting for the bell to ring. When we finally got out, tons of police cars could be seen rushing downtown.

"Want to check it out?" I asked casually. Amy nodded eagerly and so did Miles.

"Let's go!" We hid in between the dumpsters behind the school to change into our heroic new selves, and I was the first to step out—Amy and Tails were the ones to follow me.

"Ready?" I asked. Amy pulled out her hammer from nowhere and Tails gave me two thumbs up. And when we got there in a few seconds, I froze and looked up at the reason that traffic was blocked for a good few miles: A gigantic robot wolf was attacking the city, led be what I could only identify as a floating orb at first. I did the only thing that came natural—I charged. Amy and Tails followed in suit, and I went on autopilot after that. It was like the games, only this was real, so I focused on surviving rather than getting a high score. Since I _was_ Sonic, I decided to try something new. I spin-dashed the knees first.

A metal screech followed as the fangs of the thing came gnashing down on me. I thought fast and leapt on top of its head first, curling up on myself and smashing its nose in. It lifted its head and I got a better view of the orb when I struggled not to slip or get shaken off, which would mean at least a three-story drop. The orb was actually some kind of hovercraft that was oval-shaped—and the top half of it was actually a man in a red suit, tiny spectacles, and a large, orange mustache.

Dr. Eggman.

(A/N: And, there it is. Sorry if these chapters are short . . . and there was a mix-up on my crossover . . . I'll fix it . . . see you guys next time!)


	3. 3: Knuckles, Rouge, and !

(A/N: Hey, guys! This chapter took a long time to get written, I know, so enjoy! And yes! I will leave it at a cliffhanger! Mwuahahaha!)

Tails was at the neck of the robot messing with wiring, while Amy was finishing the job I started with the legs, swinging her hammer with all her might. However, while it seemed we were just about to win, I heard the most annoying voice ever prove us wrong.

"And now who's going to stop my army of robot minions?' he asked, pressing a large red button on the console of his machine. The stomach of the wolf detached, crashing to the street below. Thank goodness there was no one there. Then about a thousand of Eggman's generic soldier bots came flying out—my only thought was _oh. My. God, _as they began to cause general havoc. I couldn't take them all _and_ the dog _and _Eggman all at once. Plus, Amy and Tails were busy fending for themselves. Just as I was turning to stop the army, a huge explosion happened in the middle of the horde of them marching on the ground, destroying at least 50 at once. In the smoke of the destruction, two figures stood. I squinted, trying to see who was there. The two then leapt out of the debris, both aiming for different targets. One was red. The other was white.

It was Knuckles and Rouge!

I cheered momentarily, then got back to what I was doing. I kept destroying the head until it was really no more than a lump of metal. Then, aiming just right, I got a good kick at the tail, knocking it clean off to the ground, smashing a few bots in the process. I looked down at the fight below me—why were the soldiers getting back up?

"Bwahahahaha! I knew that you would try and fight back—but these, my friends, are specially designed: it is impossible for anything without a human DNA signature to defeat them!" While he laughed, we all stared.

"You just made this ten times easier," I said. He didn't hear me, still gloating over his inevitable triumph. I concentrated, focusing quickly on my human Sonic form. _Chaos Transformation!_ The quick flash of light assured me that it had worked, and I looked for the others. Human Tails was a little blonde boy with jeans, a white t-shirt, a yellow-orange jacket, and a scarf that resembled his fox tails, as well as goggles on his forehead (probably for flying). Amy and Rouge still had the same outfits, and their skin tone and hair was basically the same as before—pink and white—while Amy had pale, pearly skin and Rouge was deeply tanned, and rather than wings, she had a jet pack. Knuckles was now a tallish skinny guy with fire-engine red shoulder-length hair, a red t-shirt, gray sweatpants, and his usual gloves and shoes in human proportions.

"You were saying, Eggman?" I asked. He stopped and looked at us, his mouth a perfect 'O'. I got an idea and jumped off the wolf, leaving Tails to what he was doing. I joined Knuckles while Rouge helped Amy.

"So, Knux, what's up?' I asked.

"Shut it and help me," he grunted when a particularly large robot managed to get a hit in. I nodded, and began to run wide circles at top speed. I grinned when I heard robots crash into each other in the tornado I'd created—or wind tunnel—or cyclone—or whatever you wanted to call it. It went on like that for a few more minutes, all the while Eggman was frantically yelling curses at us and pressing buttons. Finally, just as we turned to face him, he flew out of sight.

"Dang it!" Knuckles and I both yelled.

"Well, we'd better run, guys," said Tails, looking around. The media and large crowds were beginning to flood in. We ran, together, back to the school and hid in the bushes for a few minutes to be sure that no one had followed us. The shrubs were thick, so we couldn't see each other either.

"So . . . you found Chaos Emeralds, too?"

Knuckles' voice answered, "Well, I got the Master Emerald, and she got the light blue emerald, but yeah. Meet anyone else yet?"

"Nah, but I'm sure Shadow will be showing up any time soon."

"Just curious, do you guys go to school here?" asked Rouge. A short silence followed.

"Yeah . . . you?" I asked.

"We do. And considering who we are, you probably hate us," said Knux.

"What? Why?" asked Amy.

"Rouge and I are pretty easy to hate at school—I have no doubt in my mind that at least four kids in my class despise me more than anything. I was too big of a bully—still am—for a long time for them not to." I blinked. Only one person I knew had ever been _that_ bad . . . two people . . . and their eyes matched those of Knuckles and Rouge, a red-violet and a light sky blue. But it couldn't be . . .

"Let's change and get out. We should be okay," I said, needing to know. Everyone voiced their agreement. Little flashes happened all around me as we all changed back to normal.

* * *

><p><em>Meanwhile, in the ruins of what looked like the ruins of a modern city, Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat were avoiding spurts of lava and geysers. <em>

_ "Blaze, seriously, can we stop and rest somewhere? We've been looking for hours by now," said Silver, out of breath. Blaze nodded, and they stopped on a seemingly clear rock. _

_ "I may be the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, but that's of no use to us," said Blaze tiredly. _

_ "I know. If those could be used to teleport us to the Chaos Emeralds—"_

_ "Then we wouldn't need the Chaos Emeralds in the first place," she answered. _

_ "I know. That stupid portal," Silver growled. _

_ "I can hardly believe it's been nine years. Where'd you grow up again?"_

_ "It doesn't matter right now—Wait! Blaze! The Chaos Emeralds!" Silver pointed at a glow in a crevice that wasn't quite fiery. He held out one hand and used his phsycokinesis to float the two emeralds towards them while avoiding any possible danger. One was red, and the other was white. Silver took the white one like it was his own beating heart, and Blaze grabbed the red one in a similar fashion, a look of awe on her face. They grabbed hands, (blushing slightly) and then Silver concentrated on the exact place he had left for the desolate, strange, flaming wasteland. Where he'd left his brother . . . _

_ "Chaos Control!"_

* * *

><p>Knuckles had become John, and Rouge was Scarlet. And I was staring at them like an idiot while they stared back.<p>

"E-Eric?" asked John.

"Yeah? John?"

"I'm sorry . . . for . . . everything." He seemed unable to name every little thing he'd done, silent in listing the torture he'd caused me. I could have sneered, told him that it was a little late for sorry, or just about anything . . . but I didn't. I did something that shocked all those present, including myself.

"I forgive you. We're in this mess together now. We can't hold grudges if we're trying to be heroes and stop that egghead. Am I right?"

"That was actually pretty deep," commented Scarlet, even as she nodded to agree with me.

"No more beat-downs. I honestly don't remember why I started doing that anyway," continued John.

"I'm not letting you run off to save the world without me," said Amy, hands on her hips and a determined look on her face.

"And you can count me in!" exclaimed Miles.

"All right then. Now let's—uh—holy crud! I'm late for curfew! See you guys later!" I changed into Human Sonic, ran as fast as possible home, and changed back as I was slowing down on my street. People were all inside, and there was no one around. I strolled in and found my parents in the kitchen. Mom hugged me the second she saw me and there were tears in her eyes. Dad looked like he'd been crying too.

"What's going on?" I asked, apprehensive. Mom just shook her head.

"Just go to your room, sweetie. Something's waiting there that will help you understand." I was officially putting my mind on overdrive now, trying to figure out what it was. I went into my room and closed the door behind me before looking—I was a little scared to know what was waiting for me. I turned to find someone sitting on my bed.

**Aaaaand . . . cliffhanger. Tell me what you think, and I'll try to update more often-but school's a pain, so it probably will just be on the weekends. See ya!**


	4. 4: Shadowy Tales

He was a guy my age, and he looked just like me, but with blonde hair and yellow-amber eyes, and a few bruises and scratches here and there. He wore a plain white t-shirt and jeans. I froze in place as I realized . . .

"Jason?" I yelped.

"Eric!" he grinned. I hugged him without a second thought.

"Dude, I missed you so much! Never disappear like that again!" I said, wiping my eyes. There were tears threatening at their corners, and it was hard. He hugged back, and his voice cracked as he spoke.

"Oh my god . . . Eric . . . you have no idea what it's been like . . . I've missed you too, man." Finally we got over our little brotherly reunion moment.

"So . . . where have you been? Where did that portal thing take you?" I asked. His expression darkened in a flash.

"I don't know how to explain it. I was on top of this huge cliff with some girl my age. She was scared, and so was I . . . we got to know each other, and she had had the same thing happen, except that she had been with her brother out in the open. We worked together and survived. There was always a ton of destruction, and the few people we met were grim, in small bands, and usually close to starvation, but they taught us basics, and we taught ourselves the rest. She had these things called the Sol Emeralds—"

"—stop there! Sol emeralds? Was the girl . . . able to . . . turn into a cat, by chance?" I asked. He went wide-eyed.

"Yeah! We found two Chaos Emeralds and Chaos Controlled here a few hours ago—that's like teleporting." My mind was racing. Was she Blaze the Cat? Was Jason like me? Who was he, then? I was going to ask, but then Mom and Dad came in and we had a good ten minutes of a family meeting. The thought nagged at me the entire night, even as I went to bed. The only reason I didn't ask was because of his pained expression when he mentioned the place he'd gone to. I didn't want his return home to just be retelling of whatever he had left behind—what kind of a brother would I be then? Besides, it would ruin it for me if he was unhappy like that. Who knew? Maybe he had nothing to do with all this Chaos craziness after all . . .

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><p>Shadows loomed as the sun set. One of them happened to be a red and black hedgehog, standing next to a tall man with a military uniform outside what looked like an army base.<p>

"You'd better not have anything to do with that Eggman showing up today," said the man gruffly. The hedgehog shook his head.

"Sir, if I had, you would've known about it. I'm 'always being watched', remember?" Even that low, rough voice had sarcasm dripping off of it in that sentence. The man growled.

"Watch your mouth. Remember what happened last time . . ." he said, a threat clear in the tone. The hedgehog flinched as if remembering a hard blow, and paused before speaking again.

"Sir, should I . . . join the others in fighting Eggman?" The man, who had been facing away, turned abruptly.

"Others?"

"Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy."

"Hmph. Just go back home—your _mother_ isn't fond of me since she stopped your tutoring sessions."

"Yes, sir," the hedgehog said, disdain clear in his voice. He turned and skated away as the sun sunk below the horizon, and the only light visible were the flying golden sparks on the ground that indicated that he was running at top speed.

"You didn't say 'no'," he muttered, and a light flashed.

* * *

><p>I woke up early and shook Jason awake, too.<p>

"Wake up, come on—the lava's rising," I said, and he rolled off of the bed, yelping. Then he threw a pillow at my face. Then we both went to the living room.

"You okay?" I asked. He'd winced slightly when he sat down on the couch.

"I'm fine, just sore. We searched for the Chaos Emeralds for hours on end last time. Eliza and I were okay, but lava isn't fun to almost fall into. Landing on semi-sharp rocks in bad places is the alternative."

"Eliza?"

"The girl—the cat girl," he explained.

"Oh, hey, Jason . . . you said that she could turn into a cat. Can you change too?" He was about to answer, but I leaned on the T. V. remote hidden somewhere in the couch cushions, and it turned on to the news. It was a live story, of a huge wildfire in the forest involving lots of renegade robot-lizard things.

"Uh . . . I've got to go to the bathroom," I said quickly. I snuck out the window and was out running towards the fire before you could say, "Sonic and Mario at the London 2012 Olympic Games" . . . yeah, that's a mouthful, but you get the point. When I got there, I found the lizard things like mini dragons torching everything in sight.

"Eggman, you've done it now," I growled to myself. This particular forest was a place where I'd camped out during the summer many years, where a lot of people walked or hiked, and where a lot of animals lived. It was a place where everyone could relax, anytime. _Was._

I began trashing them, knowing that fighting the flames would be useless until they were destroyed. Each one only took one or two hits to be demolished, but they were spread out, so it took time to find them all. Finally, I smashed the last one, and scanned the area to be sure, when one of the broken ones was thrown just inches past my face, a greenish-blue glow fading from it as it went.

"Hey! What was that for?" I yelled, turning.

"Focus on the fire, okay? You finished them all!" yelled a fierce voice, that of Silver the Hedgehog, who was currently glaring at me.

"Look, I was just getting to it!" I said, holding up my hands in exasperation. Then I did get to it: I ran circles around large sections of flames at top speed to choke them out, and kept doing so over and over again, first on the outside edges to contain the fire in one spot, and moving inward. Silver piled the robots on top of smaller sections, snuffing them out, but it did get done after a while. After we were done, there were only a few smoking embers.

"Happy?" I asked, skidding to a stop next to him.

"Not really. This shouldn't have happened. The guy in charge of these shouldn't have done this—but why?"

"It's a threat. He—Eggman 's letting us know that he can do whatever he wants and we can't stop him—which is wrong. I don't know too much about him except that he plans to destroy and/ or take over the world. Listen, Silver, do you want to get Blaze? I'll get the others, and we can make a plan involving the Chaos Emeralds and kicking Egghead butt." He looked startled that I knew who Blaze was.

"What? Uh . . . sure. Just let me tell you something."

"Yeah?"

". . . For the past nine years, Blaze and I were stuck in an alternate dimension with fire monsters, lava, and barely any people. We barely survived most days. I don't know how you know her name—though I can guess—and frankly, I don't trust you."

"It's fine. You can't be too careful when you don't know someone. Maybe I'll earn it later. Let's meet at the back of Washington High. It's Sunday; no one will be there."

"Good. I'll see you there in a few minutes."

"See ya." Now I was positive about one thing: Silver was Jason. I would have expected Shadow simply because we look alike, but that hardly mattered now. I ran home to call up Amy, Miles, John, and Scarlet, telling them the situation, leaving out my discovery about Silver's identity.

Everyone had responded, "I'm on my way now." I left a note for my parents, saying that Jason and I were hanging out with friends, which was ultimately true. We were all there by about noon.

"So, we all know why we're here," I said.

"Eggman is insane, a genius, bent on taking over the world, and somehow makes giant robot armies without being noticed until he attacks," said Blaze.

"He also must have a secret hideout somewhere," Rouge stated.

"Well, we have no clue where it is, except that it is not in plain sight," Tails sighed.

"Did he go towards the lake?" asked Amy. I shivered.

"Uh . . . no, I don't think so," I replied, shivering. Water and I didn't mix well. I never could swim, and always managed to half-drown myself when the water was deeper than I was tall.

"Seriously? You can't swim? Just like the games?" Knuckles laughed.

"Watch it Knux, or I'll chuck the Master Emerald so hard that you'd need an observatory telescope to ever see it again," I growled.

"Guys! Can we talk about the matter at hand? How do we beat Eggman? Especially during school," said Blaze, crossing her arms and glaring at us as though she would send a fireball at us if we argued (which she could and would).

"We'll make up excuses as we go along until we come up with something," suggested Amy.

"On to another thing. There are seven Chaos Emeralds, seven Sol Emeralds, and one Master Emerald. We have all of those except for one Chaos Emerald. As far as we know, it's up for grabs," Silver pointed out.

"Or someone else has it and has yet to show themselves," I said.

"Exactly," he continued, "We need a safe place for each emerald—they need to be generally separate, so if Eggman tries to get them, we'll know before he has them all."

"Good thinking. Tails, any chance you can make some kind of emerald tracker?" asked Rouge.

"It would take time. As long as I had am emerald, which I do, I could make it after a while. We need to make sure that each of us hides out emerald somewhere different. I'll take mine to my basement so I can work on the tracker—it's always locked when I'm not in there."

"My gym locker," said Amy. One at a time, each person said their specific hiding places—always locked—until it was just Silver and I.

"My room," said Silver. _Well, that's out,_ I thought. That was my idea.

"Don't you have a brother? Do you share the same room?" asked Blaze, "Won't he . . ."

"No, he wouldn't steal it even if he did find it. I'd trust Eric with my life." And he'd just said, only a few minutes before, that he didn't trust me. Tails and Amy glanced at me—Amy had known Jason, and Tails had been told about him. I shrugged. However, while Amy didn't press me for information, Tails didn't let it go.

"You have a brother named Eric?" This wasn't going good—I'd wanted to confront him myself at home, where I'd know all the facts and he'd trust me as I told him. Oh, well, too late now.

"Yes. Why?" Silver asked.

"Well, what's your human name?"

"Jason. This has nothing to do with anything we're talking about! Sonic, tell us where you're going to—"

"—because Sonic has a twin brother named Jason, who disappeared for nine years. If he came back recently, I imagine that he didn't have the time to tell us yet . . . but he might have come last night." Silver's eyes snapped towards mine. He was searching my face for some sign of recognition, and I scratched my nose, thinking of a way to break it to him.

"Is there something that my brother forgot to mention to me when I came home last night?" he asked slowly.

"Um . . . maybe . . . yeah . . . sort of . . ." I decided it wasn't worth the trouble to come up with a story. _Chaos Transformation!_ And I'd become Eric Sarali once again. Silver blinked once. Then twice. After that, a bunch of white and blue-green lights flashed, leaving my brother in their place. He still had the same expression of confused realization.

"Well, I guess this explains a lot . . . hey, bro," I smiled weakly and scratched the back of my head. He crossed his arms and tried to look angry, but the corner of his mouth twitched. And I was trying, yet failing, to hold back a grin. By now the others had turned human, too (Eliza apparently has ragged, shoulder-length hair, tan skin, and wears loose sweatpants and t-shirts), and we were all laughing. Finally, we managed to completely stop and go our separate ways, except, that is, for Jason and I. We talked for a long time, discussing long lists of things that are private, twin brother, dude why didn't you tell me it was you in the first place, I didn't have the time and I didn't want to worry you, types of topics.

"This insanity has only started, hasn't it?" he asked as we both got to bed.

"Believe me, Jason: it probably hasn't even started yet."

* * *

><p>That night, at another house, Shadow the hedgehog was sitting at a kitchen table, leaning his head on his hand and drumming his fingers on the table. One word could have described him: bored. A woman with black hair, a man with blonde, and a thirteen year old girl who reminded one of Alice in Wonderland, all walked in. The woman, at seeing Shadow, sighed in a slightly annoyed manner.<p>

"Can you at least be in human form around Maria? I don't care what your commander wants you to do in training, but honestly!" The girl rolled her eyes. Nonetheless, Shadow turned into a human version of himself. He seemed to be a lean and strong seventeen-year-old Goth. His eyes were now more amber than red, and his deeply tanned skin was the same on an angled face. His raven hair was somewhat spiky, with thin, bright red streaks on the larger spikes. A white t-shirt with a black long-sleeved net shirt over it as well as dark, worn jeans, matched his brooding expression. The same classic skates and gloves were on his hands and feet, though they were smaller. A small pendant hung from his neck that had a sort of spiral shape—the Black Arms symbol from the games—and he looked to the woman expectantly. She nodded in approval.

"Honestly, what if someone walked in?" she muttered before fixing his hair.

"_Mom,_" he complained like any normal teenage boy. But a tiny bit of excitement edged his voice, for he had been waiting for them to come home for a long time. They had been on a trip to the very military base he had left the other day, and they had been there because of him—his parents, to be told the truth about his birth, his story. G. U. N. was very secretive when they brought him to the man and woman those years ago. Finally, they were going to tell him. That is, if G. U. N. told them all of it, which, knowing the Commander, Shadow doubted it highly. His father told Maria to go to her room and stay there, because she didn't need to know. But before she closed the door behind her, she winked at Shadow to let him know she'd be eavesdropping.

"Honey, you know why we're here," started the woman tenderly. Shadow spoke slowly, knowing they would draw it out, but an underlying anxiety was clear if you had heard him. He _needed _to know . . .

"Commander Stone finally decided to tell you about my birth."

"Yes—he didn't give many details, but the general story goes something like this . . . how do I start?" she wondered. The man, her husband, finally stepped in.

"You know how Shadow was created in the video games?" he asked. Shadow raised his eyebrows, but answered warily.

"Yeah. He was an artificial life form hidden away by the government, created by Gerald Robotnik on the Space Colony ARK."

"It's similar to your own story, ironically. G. U. N. wanted to make a sort of person immune to disease and very hard to hurt physically—possibly carrying a cure for deadly sicknesses, and also being an ultimate soldier and peacemaker. Sixteen years ago, they succeeded in one of their top-secret labs—a little baby boy, created completely artificially, who the scientists had a secret codename for which is lost in the records. Now, Stone wouldn't tell us exactly how he got to us, but we know that your grandmother, Tanya, was involved at the time—afterwards, she went kind of batty. But we took the baby without too much question, happy to have a son, and named him after a boy that Tanya actually once knew, but switched their first and middle names to make this clear: he was his own person." Shadow stared at his hands, palms facing up, on the table.

"So . . . I'm . . . an 'artificial life form'? I was created in a lab? I'm technically . . . property of G. U. N.?"

"All but the last one. I made that very clear after your incident with training with Stone," said the woman, an icy tone when she mentioned the commander's name. The boy, Shadow, reached up to his face momentarily, then stopped. He went to bed that night with tears all ready to stream from his eyes, silent and waiting, and they spilled without sound—it was like they were never there.

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><p>(<strong>Like it? Love it? Hate it with a burning passion? . . . well, I hope not . . . Enjoy!<strong>


	5. 5: Battle and Serious Irony

**So to answer a certain review on that last chapter . . . They don't suddenly know they can change. Remember how the voice when Eric touched the emerald explained it all to him? It's the same for them all. I guess I should have made that clearer. Oh well. And anyway . . . I have a little thing I'm going to ask you guys in your reviews at the bottom. Keep that in mind. Enjoy!**

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><p>I didn't have to wake Jason up on Monday morning. We got up around the same time, and got dressed and were ready a little early, so we talked a bit as we walked.<p>

"So, Washington High straight from first grade. Good thing we have all the same classes."

"Yeah . . . I think I have a locker by yours. It's at the end of the English wing, right?"

"Cool! That section of lockers has all of us—me, Amy, Miles, John, Scarlet, and now you and Eliza are with us too. Just to warn you, the first class, Biology, has a horrible teacher.

"Thanks for the warning," he said sarcastically. On our way to school, we talked a little more.

"Well, there is one more person who has a locker by ours, but we don't know if he happens to have a Chaos Emerald. He's new to the school this year. He and I are rivals in the video game world . . . and apparently, we're really good, too."

"That's interesting. Sounds like Sonic and Shadow rivalry to me," he joked.

"How did you get up to speed with this world anyway?" I asked.

"Well, I think the Sol Emeralds kind of helped make this possible, but every night I had a dream about what happened in the day in this world . . . I think it was from your point of view."

"Like a twin connection?"

"Sort of. I don't really care—just as long as I don't have the knowledge of a six-year-old. Hey, I put the Chaos Emerald in that mini-safe under my bed. Where did you put yours?"

"Somewhere where I can get to it if I need it," I said mysteriously.

"You're keeping it on you, aren't you?"

"I figure it's safer with me than wherever I could decide to leave it lying around. Hey Damon!" I called out, and he waved back. When Jason and I got to him, I realized that he looked horrible—he was paler than before, which was saying something, and he looked like he'd been crying a lot.

"Dude, are you alright?" I asked, concerned.

"Not really, but I'll get over it. Who're you?" he asked Jason.

"I'm Jason, Eric's twin brother."

"How come I've never heard of you before or seen you?"

"Let's just say I've been lost for a while . . ." I choked on a chuckle that I tried to hold down, and Damon looked at me oddly, but other than that, nothing happened.

"Nice to meet you. Can we talk privately at lunch, Eric?"

"Uh, sure . . . see you in biology." There was no real reason to stay, so we moved on. Mr. Namggerd seemed nervous, oddly enough, and when we started on our homework, he quickly left after stammering something about needing something from the teacher's lounge. I glanced at Miles and he shrugged, then passed a piece of notebook paper to me that read: _Must have bladder issues._ I swallowed a laugh and kept working.

Then I decided, as people gradually began to talk, that it would be an okay time to ask Damon what was going on.

"Damon?" I asked slowly. He nodded.

"All right. Last night my parents explained to me about my _birth_ parents . . . yeah, I'm adopted, I've known . . . but . . . it's just been hard. At least I know now why I'm the youngest G. U. N. agent in history," he muttered. I blanched.

"What?" He paled.

"Oh, uh, I . . . you weren't supposed to hear that—"

"A little late for that. Since when were people our age allowed to work for that agency?"

"Since I came around. I'm the only one, been in it since I was seven, and I'm the Commander's second in command. You can't tell anyone—he gave me this scar for my 'disobedience' and that's when my mom pulled me from his training sessions. If he found out I told someone . . . I'd be gone from this school before you could say 'Chaos Control'."

"Don't worry. I won't tell. You've got nothing to worry about."

There _was_ the explosion to worry about.

It happened so quickly that there were people running around screaming before I'd processed it. The windows shook loudly, the roar was deafening, and multiple small fires were lit throughout the room and hallway. I got up and locked eyes with Jason and the others, and we all hid behind lab tables. While people were in chaotic confusion, we changed quickly and followed the suddenly appearing robots, who were herding the students and faculty towards the gym. We were in our human forms, so as to blend in slightly, and thankfully no one came behind us when we hid behind the majority of the varsity football players. When the robots had seemingly reported that all people were present, a screeching came from all around us that nearly made my ears bleed. Gears grinded against gears as a gigantic metal spider came onto the stage, Eggman in it holding a microphone. His drones were everywhere, holding blasters, and glowing slightly on their heads.

As the Egghead himself began to make a speech, however, we were whispering our plans to each other (i. e., You'll take the guys on the left, you try and get everyone out, can you take out the spider's legs? I'll try to get the Doctor . . .) when someone interrupted me.

"I think we ought to have more people helping with evacuation." We all turned to the voice behind me, and I found myself face to face with none other than Shadow the Hedgehog, human version.

"What the heck?" I hissed.

"Look, we have to fight first. Yes, I'm a student here too. No, I don't know who you are, and I have no clue why we are real life video game characters. Let's deal with the situation at hand, and I'll find you outside on the picnic benches at lunch. Got it?"

"Okay . . ." And we agreed quietly: Shadow, Silver, and I would go after Eggman. Blaze, and Knuckles would take down the drones. Amy, Tails, and Rouge would help with getting people out. While we carried it out, I noticed that Shadow got blasted in the right shoulder but kept fighting. The others didn't have too many issues, and everyone was evacuated quickly. Eggman cursed at us the whole way through, and he got away (one of the robots got Amy. What else was I supposed to do?). And somehow we hid, changed back, and got into the frenzy of kids again with no one in particular noticing. (Although Elaine, one of the girls in our biology and English classes, well, she seemed to give me an odd look.)

No one was informed of the attack. We didn't have to worry about having gym class, but other than that, we were going to continue the day. All the fires were put out and the rubble generally pushed aside. I got the others and we went outside to the picnic benches for lunch to find Damon sitting there.

"Uh, hey guys," he smiled anxiously, "I'm kind of waiting for someone here . . . so . . ."

"And we're looking for someone here," replied Eliza. I paused and looked carefully at him, tapping his foot.

"Are you okay, dude?" I asked. He nodded, but I saw that he glanced at his shoulder for a nanosecond.

"I guess so." But I caught it and had my guess out of my mouth before I'd fully processed it in my head.

"I don't know. The blast hit you pretty hard, didn't it?" Everyone was staring openmouthed at me, but I continued.

"You're Shadow, aren't you?" He gaped but nodded.

"How did you know?"

"You looked at your arm when I asked." He sighed.

"Well, yeah. Then, if you guessed . . . all of you are a part of this?"

"Yes. It's just too ironic," said Eliza, a grin playing on her lips.

"Enough that I can guess who's who. Miles is Tails, Eliza is Blaze, Amy is Amy Rose, Scarlet is Rouge, John is Knuckles, Jason is Silver, and Eric is Sonic."

"Right on all accounts," I smirked. We discussed a few more things before Damon took me aside.

"Look, I can't tell you everything . . . but my . . . origin . . . is like Shadow's in a way . . . I don't know all the facts . . . but just letting you know." The rest of the day was generally normal but for the gossip. It was all about us.

"Amy is so hot," one guy said, "wonder if Sonic is really her boyfriend? I know I could show her a good time . . ." I growled under my breath at that one. But when we got home, and told our parents, I kind of expected them to know . . . but they didn't.

"What? And they didn't call us when an insane maniac attacked the school?" shouted Mom. Both Jason and I sweatdropped. If she knew we were fighting that insane maniac, well . . . it wouldn't be pretty.

* * *

><p><strong>So here's my question now. What Sonic characters do you think will appear later in the story? The only ones I'm garunteeing not being in it are Sonia, Manic, and Sally. Anyone from the games is up for grabs. So tell me who you think should appear (I'm also considering someone from the comic but am not entirely sure). Also, this is the end of my prewritten chapters, so it will be a while before I can upload again. Again, tell me who you think is going to appear! <strong>


	6. 6: Music and Files

**Hey guys! I've got the next chapter RIGHT HERE! Sorry, I'm super excited. I have a day off today so I may upload a bunch of different chapters. I might even start a new story. Who knows? And I have considered the reviews on the last chapter! I promise Cream will be coming soon compared to the others. I don't know if I'm going to make Omega show up or not, but it's possible during the plot of Sonic Adventure 2. (Yes I will include it.) The Babylon Rogues will come later if at all, and I won't include storm for the sake of the fact that I think I'm having too many characters at once. The Chaotix are unlikely . . . but I may use them as comic relief later. We shall see. **

* * *

><p>I started on homework and was simultaneously texting Damon. Jason was doing his homework, too, but he was busy with an essay rather than studying Romeo and Juliet. (Romeo. Is. A. Drama. Queen.) Damon was apparently doing the same as me, except while G. U. N. medics were checking out his arm from earlier.<p>

_So what's a soliloquy again?_

_ Uh . . . a speech by a character . . . that is directed to the audience while they're alone onstage? I think that's it. I might have that and monologue mixed up. _I needed to look that up.

_ Whatever. I'll double check and let you know. So . . . what do you think of today?_

_ Well, I certainly think that it was interesting. What I don't get is how Mr. Namggerd knew about the attack, our parents didn't, and we still had to go to class after all of that. _

_ Yeah . . . such a loss. I wish he'd been there so we could leave him at the mercy of Egghead. Maybe they'd bore each other to death. What with the lectures/gloating, you know. _Something in my head clicked then.

_Wait, Damon—spell Namggerd backwards! I think that he might have been there after all!_

_ Namggerd—D—R—E—G—G—M—A—N—OUR BIOLOGY TEACHER IS LITERALLY OUT TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! (insert the medics laughing because they think I'm joking while I shout this)_

_ Until we get that figured out, I think we'll just have to play dumb. Want to come with Jason, the others and I to Laura's Place tomorrow night? _Laura's Place was a pizzeria downtown that had the best food within a good fifty-mile radius.

_Sure! Sounds good. And we might be able to figure out a plan to deal with Eggman. _ _OK. _Sadly, I forgot that Tuesday nights were special at Laura's.

Damon rolled his eyes when his medics left and his phone buzzed again. But when he looked at the screen, it wasn't Eric—instead, a picture of Black Doom on fire was displayed. He took the call.

"Yes, Commander?"

"I need you here, now." Damon turned into Human Shadow, then Chaos Controlled to the base, where the commander looking at files on the main supercomputer. The screen was large, like the TV at the Von Garthe home. There was no visible keypad, but it must have been a touch screen. Stone was glaring at the password entry section.

"So, what am I here for?"

"Enter your passcode. It's the only one that can open these files about . . . the ARK."

"I thought that was a story newbies are told by the more immature officers, and they eventually knew better."

"Apparently not. This file is real . . . I thought we destroyed all information regarding it . . ." he muttered the last bit under his breath, but Damon pretended not to hear it. He typed in his private passcode that no one knew about except him. He didn't know where he got it or when, but always remembered it. It was easy to remember too. _Maria Robotnik._ Of course, the irony of it made him chuckle, but he never told anyone about it . . . the folder opened immediately. There were about 100 files . . . some of which were picture files, others, documents. Damon slipped his USB drive that he normally used for school stuff into the computer and idly clicked 'save all files' in the corner. He was careful to make it look like he hadn't by scrolling down the page at the same time. He wasted time looking at graphs, old sketches, and blueprints for the lab in space, waiting for all the files to be copied. Once it was done, he pulled out the small device and shook his head.

"Bunch of gibberish to me," he muttered, just loud enough for the Commander to hear, "I guess it was nothing after all. Maybe someone made it to fool a newbie," he chuckled, pretending that he actually believed it. The Commander frowned.

"Shadow—Damon—you're dismissed," he said coldly. Damon fake-saluted and Chaos Controlled out. He changed back to normal once he was in his room, and got out a small box from under his bed. He opened it and carefully set the device that held a lot of answers for him inside. The box had not been empty, for it also held his Chaos Emerald and a picture of him and his sister Maria as young children playing in the snow. Even then, Damon wore all black.

The next school day was nothing. When Jason and I were getting ready to go to the restaurant, I came up with a bit of a surprise after my shower. My face had changed since I last remembered.

Of course, this would normally be no big deal, but I suppose in this case I noticed it more. I didn't think it was possible to tan that quickly considering I had been hanging out outside all summer and had no changes, but yet, my skin was noticeably darker than before. And I didn't look like I was almost underfed either—it actually looked like I had some muscle going, which was a shock, plus my face was less pointed too. I looked . . . older . . . even with the longer hair that I seemed to be getting. And then it hit me. If my hair had turned blue, then I could have been human Sonic. Was it just me? Or were the others changing too? I knew that the tan and face could be explained by physical growing, but blue hair would take some drastic genetics to happen in real life. Maybe if I dyed my hair, it would just start growing that color . . . not that I was going to experiment. I wanted to keep my semi-normal life for a while, thank you very much, without everyone recognizing me as Sonic the Hedgehog.

Anyway, I threw on a t-shirt, jeans, and a jacket, and headed out with Jason. It was only when we got there that I realized . . .

It was karaoke night.

Now, this may seem childish, but hey, no one in their right mind would want to sing in front of anyone at Laura's if they didn't think they were awesome. Elaine, who was a pale girl with blue eyes and dark blonde hair that she always left loose, recorded all the performances every week. Then she would upload a montage of the highlights each time. Sometimes she would have someone else tape her if she went on. Everyone in school watched her videos, although I was probably one of the few people who knew she was the one who made them. She was a great singer, and never posted an entire performance unless they were really good—or really bad.

She didn't talk to me much, or anyone really. But when there were projects in which we had to have partners back in grade school and Miles and Amy weren't available, I'd go to her. She was a very hard worker, explained things better than the teacher sometimes, and was usually easy to talk to because she never openly made judgments. Except when it came to music. I guessed it was her passion.

Anyway, when I realized it and looked at Elaine with her camcorder, I nearly bolted out the doors right then. I'd never sung in front of anyone in my life, and if no one volunteers at Laura's, the waiter starts picking victims. When we sat down, I let them all know exactly why I was so jumpy. Damon immediately grew paler (Huh, I'm not the only one who's starting to look like human Sonic. He's getting tanner, and his hair is getting darker . . . and his scar is fading a bit.) and John simply crossed his arms. Finally, Laura herself, a sweet lady who was somewhere in her sixties, stood on the little stage they had. The restaurant was dark except for the stage, with brick walls, lots of pictures, and an occasional neon sign.

"All right, everyone! We're going to start off with one of my favorite customers! Come on up, Elaine!" Did I mention that Laura is Elaine's aunt and legal guardian? No one knows about her parents, so . . . yeah . . . anyway, Elaine looked around for someone to hold her camera, and spotted Damon.

"Hey, could you film me? I record all the performances every night, and I can't really point the camera at myself," she whispered across the table, standing at the edge. He took the camera and got up closer, kneeling on the floor by the edge of the stage.

"All right, I'll sing . . . hm . . . Love Story by Taylor Swift." She grinned easily and waited for the music to come on. No one would deny that she could be professional, making money off of this already, but I wondered why she hadn't been noticed yet, especially with her popular videos . . . wasn't that how Justin Bieber (gag. No offense to Justin or anyone who likes him, I just don't.) got famous? I watched her intently as she sang about a Romeo and Juliet with an actual happy ending.

" . . . Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel. This love is difficult, but it's re-eal! Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess, it's a love story, baby just say yes!" She seemed really into it, like her Romeo wasn't coming. Or maybe that was just me thinking about the crush I had on her in fifth grade. Who knows? But when she was done, she looked back at Damon and blushed. Maybe there was something there. Anyway, after all of that, I noticed that a considerable crowd had left, and now there were about three other tables with people at them. Which meant only one thing . . .

"And let's see . . . who wants to go next?" asked Laura cheerfully. Elaine was clutching her camera, and I really didn't want to be seen . . . but instead, Damon got picked.

"What? No, I don't sing, ma'am. I've never sung in front of people before . . . please, I don't want to make a fool of myself," I heard him as one of the waitresses dragged him up. He finally gave up and looked at the list of songs. He seemed unamused and didn't really like the majority, but one of them, he stopped at, and chose it.

"I'm going to sing . . . alright . . . What I'm Made Of by Crush 40." I looked at him quizzically, simply because that was a theme for Sonic, not Shadow. _But I guess most Crush 40 songs could be applied to both anyway . . . except for All Hail Shadow_.

"Is it me, you say, you're looking for? Let me show you who I am and what I'm here for . . . here for . . . Heeeey! Try to reach inside of me, try to drain my energy! Let me show you just what I'm made of! Simple curiosity, try to take a bite of me; let me show you just what I'm made of now . . ." And I wondered why he was so worried. He was awesome, with a pretty similar voice to the lead in the original song. His was just a little smoother, a little younger, I guess. The people who were there cheered when he was done, including Elaine, who was standing and clapping, camera turned off after she'd just finished. Damon looked suddenly dazed, as he seemed to have ignored the fact that he normally didn't perform on the stage and just realized that everyone was excited and cheering. A couple of really bad singers (sorry John, you know it's true. Your rapping was okay, though.) went up, and it seemed that no one could beat Damon's performance. I thought maybe I wouldn't have to go up. And, like anyone who knows what happens when you get hopeful . . .

I jinxed myself.

The waiter grabbed my arm and said, "Hey, kid, you'll be the last act of the night, okay? It's going to be you or me, and since I sound like a dying cat for sure . . . you're up!" I shook my head.

"Dude, I'm probably worse!"

"Then it'll be a good laugh for you and your friends." I groaned and looked at the list. Well, I wasn't doing any of the girl songs . . . or duets . . . and I wasn't into the majority of the Disney songs on the list . . . however, I did like one of the songs. I actually knew it too.

"I'll sing Knight of the Wind by Crush 40." There were murmurs in the audience, and I took a deep breath. Well, at least the majority of them were my friends. Maybe I could bribe Elaine not to put a video of me up? _Fat chance,_ the realistic part of my mind said. Well, the music was starting. Time to humiliate myself.

"Hey all, welcome to the greatest storm! I know, you have waited much to long! And I, I will be your shining star! I'm here, here to conquer fear, and to run! Like the sun, I'm wrought into the heat of day; like a knight, I'll fight, until the fight is won! In a rage, I'll save each and every, each and every, each and every one 'til this war is won. And I'm meant to rule, slashing through the every inch of the power, the power in you! As I sit, as I stand, by the table I command, my kingdom . . . I'm the knight of the wind . . ." I tried not to think about everyone staring at me. I didn't even listen to my own voice. I just listened to the music, remembering the opening to the game. In the back of my mind I imagined swinging a sword, turning into Excalibur Sonic and all that. It was only when it ended that I paid attention, but I kept my face normal rather than freaked out.

Silence in the restaurant. I couldn't even hear the cars outside. And then . . .

"**_!_**"

The roar made the windows shake, and I know I looked like an idiot. What the heck? Was I . . . good? I looked at my friends, who were on their feet, and then at Elaine, who also was, camera forgotten on the table. I stumbled off the stage and sat down with them. Jason grinned and told me I was awesome. I stuttered out a thank you to anyone who said anything about it, and tried to believe that I was honestly that good . . . I headed home with Jason after a long while.

* * *

><p>When Damon got home, he finished his homework at lightning speed. He needed to look at those files . . . he closed his bedroom door and locked it. He gritted his teeth and opened the files on his laptop, ready for nearly anything . . . but probably not what he had opened. The title of most of the documents was <em>Project Savior.<em> Damon furrowed his brow, trying to find a more specific document . . . and then he found one that had an interesting title.

_The Diary of Gerald Robotnik._

* * *

><p><strong>And that would be it! I might upload the next chapter in a short amount of time, but we'll see. It depends if I can get the entire chapter that's going to be about half the diary entry. I tend to upload in large chunks, so if it comes it comes. And if it doesn't . . . you'll have to use your imagination until I come up with something. And let me know your opinion on this one:<strong>

**Should I include the storylines of these following games? I've been questioning whether to put them in or not.**

**-Sonic and the Secret Rings**

**-Sonic and the Black Knight**

**-Sonic Colors**

**-Sonic Generations**

**I've got other games for sure, but I was wondering if these would be interesting to you guys. I really want to use Generations and Black Knight, but I don't know . . . tell me what you think!**


	7. 7: Not Life and Death Situations

**Well, hello there! Here's chapter seven! I really normally don't like the Chaotix group, but . . . ah, what the heck. They're just about as funny as annoying in my book, so they will enter here, along with a bit of reading. **

* * *

><p>Damon immediately began to read.<p>

_I don't feel that it is necessary to record the dates, as the lab information and reports by all of the G. U. N. guards will reinforce that. It is the order of events that matters to me. This is how it happened exactly as I saw it. _

_ The people I feel that I should introduce somehow are Tanya Von Garthe _(Grandma Tanya? The crazy old lady who hates me? Damon wondered.) _she's a sweet lady I suppose. She loves my niece and nephew, Maria and Joshua. Another . . . well, Joe Iblis isn't exactly my best friend, but I suppose he could be worse. The man is more about the power than the project. I suppose that's why he rubs me the wrong way. Also, as I mentioned, my niece and nephew live here on the ARK with us. Maria and Joshua Robotnik—Maria Jane is twelve, and Joshua Damon is a few months old. He was born on the ARK—his and Maria's mother had to return to Earth. They will return, too, when their parents can support them. Until then, we scientist are their guardians. Maria acts like a mother to her little brother . . . I suppose it's very adorable, even I'll admit it. The Biolizard was a failed attempt at the Savior. We attempted to use DNA from a fossil to create the organism, but it's clear that high radioactivity and dinosaur remains do not produce anything but destruction. If it was dead, the core that was used to make it would become unstable and could potentially explode. This would destroy the labs, therefore, we keep it on ice in lab E-13. Thank goodness that we can keep the children out of there. _

Damon stopped there because it was getting late anyway, and luckily enough he knew he could get back to it. Though he thought it was strange that he had a flipped version of Joshua Robotnik's name.

* * *

><p>Well, I would say it for years to come that I hated Biology class with a burning passion. It didn't help when <em>he<em> was taking us on a field trip that was mandatory—just our class, because apparently we were all in need of a visit to some museum that he thought was perfect. I thought it was idiotic until we were on the bus. The driver was the one that used to take me home from grade school. But the only other adult was Eggman himself—ahem, Namggerd.

"What do you think he's doing?" I asked Jason.

"I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about it," he replied.

"Why? What does he want with a bunch of kids?" He stared at me like I just asked why I can run so fast.

"Kids that could potentially be his archenemies."

". . . oh, boy." Soon enough, we were on a highway road through absolute nowhere. I couldn't even see any other cars. There was just a bunch of random hills. I didn't notice we were in a tunnel going through those hills for about thirty seconds, but ignored it. Mostly, I was trying to listen to the conversations around us. I was pretty much shocked by what I heard behind me.

". . . did you watch the new video up from Laura's place?"

"No, why?"

"You'll never believe it! I can't believe Damon and Eric are so amazing!" _What? This was Jenna talking! This is Jenna . . . who just took Scarlet's place as meanest girl in school a week or two ago. Scarlet 's still captain of the junior varsity cheer squad, and John is still on football, but Jenna and her boyfriend Nick are now the top of social status ever since Scarlet and John started hanging out with us. She's talking to Nick now . . . _

"Those two dorks?" he asked. Ah, the world was back in order.

"Yes—they sing like you wouldn't believe though! Better than even . . . oh . . . well . . . I don't know who to compare to, but they are amazing! Here, I've got my phone, I'll show you." I listened in on the phone and wasn't surprised be Elaine's voice being first. I chuckled at the fact that she only had the part with John rapping, otherwise, ears would bleed. She put Damon's full song on—she does that rarely. She cut straight to me, and I listened. And—what? That was me? Had she recorded someone else singing it and synched it up with my mouth moving . . . wait, she wasn't quite a computer genius to be able to pull that off. So that was me? Wow.

When we got to the museum, which, I might add, was in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of grassy hills around, I decided that there was no way that we were going to have a normal field trip. I stopped by Damon, who had just gotten out of the bus and was leaning on one of the stone columns of the museum. I couldn't see anyone at all inside.

"What do you make of this?" he asked.

"Well, first, I'd say that Egghead can't get more suspicious. Second, I believe we may have to come up with a good story as to why we can turn into the famous heroes of the town pretty soon."

"Well, maybe not. I can afford to give up the fact that I'm part of G. U. N., and that'll explain my fighting abilities. And who knows? Maybe we can somehow get out of this secrets intact anyway. People have yet to figure out that we're disappearing every time Eggman decides to destroy the town square." I grimaced.

"Not quite. Mom grounded Jason and I last night for running off and not telling her anything when some robots were randomly destroying public property. We took care of it, but still . . ."

"That's rough. I wonder if we should tell our families, you know, besides mine."

"Are you kidding? After Jason disappeared, do you think my parents would be okay with us fighting off an insane maniac? They'd never let us out of the house!"

"Speaking of which, how did the cops swallow Jason's story about having no clue where he was?"

"They were too scared of my mother's wrath to give him further questioning."

"Ah." As we talked, the rest of the class had come out, and Mr. Namggerd looked around, taking attendance. Then he led us in.

The museum was empty, dark, and generally coated in dust. There were about ten closed, large metal doors on one wall that wasn't covered in plaques and paintings and displays. Each one had a square keypad next to it, and was labeled with black letters, A, B, C, and so on. Mr. Namggerd walked to the front of the group and we all got quiet.

"You may explore as you wish, but you cannot go into the rooms over there. If you try to open them without a security code, then alarms will sound and you will be in very big trouble with the school, your parents, and probably the police. I am going to call in and see if I can find a tour guide. If not, run around and do whatever you want. Don't touch anything," he warned as he went off into one of the wings.

"Well," Damon said loudly after he was out of earshot, "Let's check out these rooms, then." He walked up to room **A** and looked at the keypad. He turned to look at me.

"Hey Eric! Check this out!" I looked and saw three unmistakable letters on the side of it. **G—U—N.**

"How do you two think you're going to get in there?" sneered Nick.

"Well, this is an old G. U. N. thing. It'll respond to whatever codes are for the different agents. They only use the codes for the computer now, because all they need is a thumb scanner and a security camera now. Of course, I've got a code, and if mine doesn't work, none will," he said, mostly to himself. I looked around.

"What? Are you trying to say you work for G. U. N.?" asked Jenna incredulously.

"Obviously. Let's see." He punched in a code and a light above the door turned green. The door swung open.

"No way!" I said as Damon and I went in first. It was the remains of none other than the giant robot wolf as well as a whole bunch of other trashed machines. Each one had a label that proclaimed that it had "FAILED" in his attempts to take over. People looked around in awe.

"This looks like the things that attacked in school," said Elaine, pointing out one particular scrap pile to a few people. Then they started to crowd around it, looking at the stuff.

"Well, okay. Junk. Then at least we know Eggman will probably recycle it for later . . . let's go to the next room," suggested Miles. I nodded and we all went out, and Damon opened door **B**. I guess I should have expected what came next.

_**BEEEEEP. BEEEEEP. BEEEEEP. **_Well, that was just great. Red lights turned on the minute that we were all inside, and a very large glass tube came down from the ceiling, hitting the floor with almost enough force to shatter it. It was about as large around as the invisible box mimes have, and went from the floor to the ceiling. I flinched, looking from side to side, and saw that everyone was in the same boat. It was like being in a set of test tubes, only my friends and classmates were all stuck in other ones. On a large platform at the front of the room, standing next to what looked like a control panel, was Mr. Namggerd. There was no tube on top of him, trapping him on the spot. He was smiling as he pressed a button, making the alarms and lights stop. Regular florescent lights flickered on.

"Mr. Namggerd, get us out of here!" shouted someone. I rolled my eyes. Like that was going to happen. He put us here, after all. He merely smiled.

"I'm afraid I can't do that now. It's quite wonderful watching you all squirm, clueless as to why I—"

"Clueless?" I interrupted. "What kind of an idiot spells his name backwards as an alias?" He looked surprised, and as people were confused and tried to spell it backwards, I sighed. Then Damon spelled his name forwards, then backwards.

"Namggerd. Dr. Eggman. Jeez, you all can't spell to save your lives," Damon said. Gasps spread throughout the room. Again, I rolled my eyes.

"You see, my dear students, I decided after my little attack on the school that there was certainly something interesting going on. One of my robots reported to me that eight of the students from my classroom were not present when it came, and I happened to know that each one had a Chaos Emerald, plus the Master Emerald, which means that eight of you here are not worrying about your safety as much as much as your secrets . . ." Which, of course, we were.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" asked Miles.

"Well, I have created a chemical that will, upon contact, make a Chaos Emerald or anyone who has had contact with a Chaos Emerald glow a particular shade of red. All I have to do is let it go, in gas form, to your tubes, and we'll all see it." The class murmured. I realized that I was the closest one to the light switch. A plan formed in my head quickly. I mouthed instructions to Amy, who passed it on to everyone else. Everyone who got it gave a tiny nod to show they understood.

"But maybe you'll just tell me?" he asked, and Damon snorted.

"They'll probably tell you when you go on a diet," he said. Eggman turned immediately to Damon.

"Ah, you're the one who got them all in. You seem like you could be quite the leader . . . maybe Sonic or Shadow? But no . . . G. U. N. would flaunt it, not keep it a secret. That is, unless you're . . ." he squinted at Damon, who leaned on the back of his tube and glared back. I bit my lip and decided this was as distracted as he was going to get. I smashed the glass tube I was in, in turn getting a lot of cuts, and hit the light switch. I could still see the light of the release button on his control panel, and sprinted towards it.

"Everybody out!" I shouted once it was open, and everyone rushed through the open door back to the bus. I hung back to distract Egghead—then no one would get caught by bots.

"Ingenious, Mr. Sarali. Why haven't you put that much work into your assignments?"

"Because they aren't life-and-death situations. Whoever Sonic and the others are, if they did what I did, they would have been caught as themselves. I'm just returning the favor for saving all of our lives that one day." Figuring everyone was probably on the bus, I ran for it.

The robots chased us all the way back to the school, and we barely made it inside before I managed to inform the teachers that Mr. Namggerd was Dr. Eggman. Oddly enough, he didn't enter the school. In fact, the robots retreated. I didn't notice that Eggman called them back because he got a prize anyway . . . and that I'd lost something very important.

* * *

><p>Eggman only grinned as he picked up his prize for the day. The children could wait. After all, they were pretty much nothing without the advantage of the Chaos Emeralds. And he now had one. He set the gem in the case next to his creation in lab <strong>C<strong>, and began to laugh, and laugh, and choke, and laugh.

* * *

><p>Officer Drummond was very puzzled. Jason Sarali had disappeared, and had returned. He supposedly had no memory of the events, and was unharmed except for a few minor scratches, bruises, and a burn or two. He could speak coherently, and after a medical exam, there was nothing found wrong with him. All that either he or his brother could explain was that he was kidnapped, and that Jason woke up on the corner of the street, in the clothes that he'd come to questioning with, and he knew simple facts that boys his age should know, that six-year-olds didn't. This was the most puzzling case he had faced. Finally, he had decided to call in help. The ad in the paper looked promising, however, the investigators did not.<p>

The first was a tall man who seemed more like he would be trouble than help. He had headphones on—the kind that were big and bulky. His green shirt with a peace sign nearly glowed in the dark, it was so bright, and his sagging pants earned a disapproving look from the policeman. But the man was an adult.

The second person that was standing to the tall man's left was younger, perhaps seventeen or eighteen as opposed to the other who was probably in his twenties. This man had somewhat long, dark hair that had an unnatural white streak down one side. He wore a loose, white, sleeveless shirt with a tight, black, long-sleeved undershirt that showed off his lean muscle. He wore jeans and gym shoes—not the large, clunky kind that seemed so popular, but plain ones that didn't get in the way.

Officer Drummond hardly noticed the third one at first because he was shorter than the desk he stood behind. It was a little boy, probably five years old, with a huge grin on his face. He had red hair and a ton of freckles.

To be honest, Officer Drummond was desperate, and he wasn't really supposed to be hiring a private agency to solve this. They were supposed to let it slide because his boss—the chief—was too scared of the mother of this boy to do anything else.

"I can assure you sir, we never give up on a case. We will solve this thing—we always do," said the second man. He seemed not to be the leader, however, was definitely the brains of the group.

"But we don't do these things for free," said the tall one.

"Ahem, may I know your names?"

"They call me Ross," said the tall one.

"Sasuke," said the calm, second man.

"I'm Ryan!" said the little boy.

"Pleased to meet you three. Now, here's the case, and this is my offer . . ."

* * *

><p><strong>There you have it. Eric's not going to be happy when he realizes that Egghead has his emerald, is he? I don't really know what I'm going to do with the Chaotix team. Really, I don't. However, because of my ideas for Damon's story, please note that the rating has moved up to T because of violence and dark themes. Also, for the previous chapter, I don't own the lyrics to those songs. I'm not that awesome and know it. However, I am awesome enough to inform you all that I <em>will<em> be including Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Unleashed. I will NOT be including Sonic and the Secret Rings or Sonic Colors unless I get a TON of people requesting it. Also, here is a litte list of other games I'm considering including plots of in this story. Some are definite, while I'm not sure about others.**

**-Sonic Adventure**

**-Sonic Adventure 2**

**-Sonic Heroes**

**-Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (No, Elise will not be joining us.)**

**-Sonic Riders Zero Gravity**

**-Sonic Rush**

**And maybe I'll do something with Scourge the Hedgehog. It's definitely a possibility, though who knows? I've never read the comics, nor have I watched any Sonic cartoons apart from Sonic Underground. If I mess up characters that I decide to include from them later, well . . . sorry for my lack of knowledge. If anything it'll just be Scourge, Fang, and maybe Fiona. And uh . . . I guess that's it. Let me know if there's anything I should include or change-I'm open to constructive criticism! **

** ~~~~~~~Flute~~~Chick~~~~~~~~**


	8. 8: Haunted Halloween

**I am back, baby! And about Scourge: I sort of have a plan for him, so I need to wait until after a certain point to bring him around. I promise he'll come around. And a warning PLEASE READ: THIS CHAPTER HAS SOME DARK THEMES NEAR THE END. BE PREPARED FOR A SHOCK. thank you. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Halloween was finally rolling around, and we were all going to the dance the night of—except Miles. He was going trick-or-treating with Damon's sister Maria and Amy's cousin Nellie.<p>

At first, we were all going to go as one big group, but then John asked Scarlet to go with him as his date. Jason then asked Eliza, who said yes. That left Damon, Amy, and I—until Damon asked Elaine. I groaned inwardly at this—I mean, I've had a crush on Amy since who-knows-when, but asking her out . . . well, I had to do it at some point or another. After school, two weeks before the dance, we all were out shopping for costumes. In between the racks, Amy and I were just looking, and the others were trying on full costumes rather than the masks and hats. I took a deep breath.

"Hey Amy, would you go to the Halloween dance with me?"

" . . . yes! Oh, Eric, I was worried that you wouldn't ask! We don't need to worry about costumes here, I'll make them. I've got an awesome idea," she grinned. I smiled back. As long as I didn't look stupid, I'd be okay with it. We were all at my house on that Saturday night. Amy brought a large box for hers and my costumes. And that night I met Nellie.

Nellie was a six year old who was the pretty princess type of toddler. She seemed very polite when she came over with her mom to pick up Miles. I don't know if their parents planned it, but they matched: Miles was a knight, and Nellie was a fairy princess. I chuckled as they left. Then Amy took my into the kitchen and locked the door behind her.

"We'll meet you guys outside!" she yelled through the door, "Our costumes will be a surprise!" What had I done? I grimaced at the thought of something cheesy . . .

She smiled and opened the box. Then she sorted out the stuff, and brought half of it to me.

"Put this stuff on, okay? I need to get mine on as well," she said. I went to the side bathroom, and she decided to change after me. Whatever she'd given me, I guess it wasn't bad. In fact, they looked like the clothes of a regular Goth. Except for the shoes and gloves . . . no . . . she was dressing me up as Shadow! I laughed once I realized it. When we were both eventually dressed, she curled her hair, put in a hairband, and sprayed mine with black stuff (and made a few red stripes). She sort of reminded me of Alice in Wonderland—of course, she was Maria Robotnik from the games.

"Will Damon be okay with me dressed as him?" was all I asked.

"Of course I asked him first! It's fine as long as you don't make fun of him."

"No! I would never do that to _embarrass him_!" I chuckled. We walked out. Damon doubled over with laughter.

"You—two—that's awesome," was all he could say. Elaine looked a little confused, but said nothing. I looked between them.

"And who are you two supposed to be?" I asked. Elaine looked scandalized.

"It's obvious! He's the Phantom of the Opera, and I'm Christine!" I only got it after she said so. I'd seen the movie once or twice, but I wouldn't have recognized it at once. Jason and Eliza were the Grim Reaper and the devil respectively, and Scarlet and John were a vampire king and queen. We all headed over to school together, and went in the gym. It was decked out in strobe lights, a fog machine, some "spider webs", and a bunch of orange and black balloons.

We danced a while, and eventually, people realized that the music had stopped. I looked up to the stage, where Nick, student body jerk—sorry, representative—was standing, holding a microphone. And he was dressed as Sonic. His girlfriend was dressed as Amy.

"Come on, he looks nothing like me," I muttered to Jason, who laughed.

"Happy Halloween, boys and ghouls," he said, "As you know, there's been a video going around about two of our classmates, and I wanted a sing-off to prove who's the champ between the two of them. That's right. Damon Von Garthe and Eric Sarali, get up here now!" I groaned and went up.

"Well, what song do you want us to do?" I asked.

"Your pick from these," he plopped a binder into my hands and set down his microphone next to another one on the end of the stage.

"This one?" I asked, pointing one out. He shrugged, in effect taking off his cape and leaving it on the side of the stage.

"I'm okay with that. Every line or so, we switch off?"

"And with the main chorus, we both sing that one line," I grinned. He nodded.

The music started playing and it was almost like we'd rehearsed it. I don't know how that worked, but it did. (Italics are Damon singing, normal is Eric, and bold is them both)

"C'mon and light the fuse, he's a rocket and he's ready to go, 'cause now the countdown has started and he's ready to blow, he's got dope sounds pumpin' in his stereo-eo, he can act fast, puttin' on a show—"

"_Go on and get yourself together there's no time to rest and if you put the time in he'll put you to the test, he's like a runnin' man in his world, more is less and if you wanna test him best bring your best. Don't make me spell it out, bring your best!_

"**In this world**, (_his world!_) _where life is strong_. **In this world**, (_his world!_) life's an open book**. In this world**, (_his world!) where compromise does not exist_. In his world of worlds every step meets the rest! **In this world**, (_his world!_) _where one is all_. **In this world**, (_his world!_) never fear the fall! **In this world** (_his world!_) _where compromise does not exist._ In his world of worlds every step meets the rest!" And it went like that for the rest of the song. Funny enough, it was almost as if he got all the lines that said "he" "him" or "his", like he was describing me and I was showing myself off. That sounded more like Sonic and Shadow than Damon and I, now that I think about it . . . anyway, after we were done, there was thundering applause. Some random Ke$ha song came on after that and people started to dance. I found Amy near the edge of the stage. She grinned like crazy.

"You were amazing! No one can deny it!" she gushed.

"Thanks. How is your night going so far?" I asked.

"Okay enough for a Halloween. Low on candy though," she giggled.

"Trick or treat?" I asked.

"Treat. What do I get?" she replied. _Come on, Eric, be a man and kiss her! You've liked her since . . . forever!_ I kissed her. Not on the forehead. Not on the cheeks. On the lips—and she kissed back.

* * *

><p>Sasuke, Ross, and Ryan were investigating, as this was the only case they'd had in months. Well, Sasuke was investigating. Ryan was eating his spaghetti at the table and Ross was listening to music.<p>

"Ma'am, I'd like to ask you if you know the Sarali family very well," he asked the owner of the restaurant. This was a place that was known to often have teenagers come over. She was a sweet old lady.

"Yes, especially the young boys—Eric and Jason—they're in my niece's classes at school. Right now they're at a Halloween party. I'm sure you could imagine my surprise when so many people came to pick her up—seven in all! I mean, I know she has friends, but she was always a very quiet girl, so I assumed it would be one or two. I think she's smitten with that Von Garthe boy, too, with the way she looks at him . . ."

"Ah, yes. Do you know much about what happened to Jason?"

"No, not really, but it's very good and well that he's back, isn't it?"

"Ma'am, I'm wondering where he went."

"Well, I certainly won't know. Goodness, even he doesn't!"

"I see. Thank you for your help. And your food is excellent."

"Thank you, young man! Stop by any time!"

"I believe I will." Sasuke stood and half-dragged the other two back to where they could continue the investigation, when they got a call. Ryan picked up.

"Hello! This is the Chaotix Detective agency! How may we help you?"

"_I have a lead on the Sarali case. Meet me at the location I am about to test the directions to. You will be rewarded substantially."_ Even Ross heard that part.

"Let's go, then, guys!" he shouted over the music that only he could hear.

* * *

><p>It was horrible. It was terrifying. It was—well, it was my mother. This is the incident I was talking about in the beginning. When we got home from the party (Kissing Amy was a thousand times better than getting any chocolate on the way home. We still did both.), Mom brought us to my room to talk.<p>

"All right. I'm not going to put up with it anymore. I want answers from both of you, tonight, and you are not leaving this room until I get them," she said firmly. I gulped. More than once, Eggman had let robots loose. We had to clean up after him, but that usually meant missing class and/or doing homework. Our grades were dipping lower—except for Miles, of course—and we'd gotten home more than once after curfew, exhausted, and Mom obviously wanted to know why. Plus, I guess that Jason and I aren't really good liars.

"Jason, first of all, I know you can't possibly have amnesia. I may not have been around for nine years, but I know you, and I can see you glancing at Eric and smirking when you think I can't see you. And both of you—where are you always going without telling me? I don't want to punish you for something that is legitimate, but you have to _tell_ me." We looked at each other. I spoke first.

"Mom, we—we can't. But I swear that we aren't being stupid and getting drunk or taking drugs. We aren't hanging out with gangs. We aren't out trying to commit suicide. Mom, we're . . . I can't explain it. We'll be careful." Tears came to her eyes.

"I just . . . don't want to come home from work . . . and not find you here . . . don't leave, please. I want you safe. I don't want you to disappear." She sobbed and looked between Jason and me.

"It won't happen again," said Jason, "I know it. Mom, trust me—I can take care of myself. Eric can too, even more so. What can we do to make it easier on you?"

"Have a cell phone on at all times. If there is ever an emergency, call me. The password that lets me know that you are in danger can be "orange". Fit it into a normal question, and I'll come running. Please do this. I don't want . . . well . . . you know . . . to happen again. And do I have a promise that you'll tell me the truth someday?"

"Yes," we both said.

"Good. Then you're just not allowed to play video games for the rest of the week, rather than being grounded."

"HUH?"

* * *

><p>Damon smiled at Elaine and waved as she went back in to help clean up at Laura's. He then found a concealed spot in the area and Chaos Controlled into his bedroom.<p>

"I'm home!" he called.

"Hi, honey!" said his mother. He got dressed in his normal clothes and took out his laptop and the files once more.

_The last entry was ironic to the point of making me sick. Joshua somehow got to E-13. He's a dead corpse in my private medical lab right now. Maria asked me where he went, and I told her that he went home. She assumed it meant Earth. I decided the one good that I could make out of this tragedy would be to donate the body to science—Joshua is going to be Savior. _

That entry was short. The next one was from the next day, but was super long. It was the last one in the file.

_We have succeeded, but at a price. After fixing injuries, replacing certain body parts, and making certain implants, Savior is as alive and happy as Joshua was a week ago. Perhaps he is a little more durable. After all, his bones are made of a combination of a special alloy and normal human ones, and certain chemical treatments have made him invulnerable to sickness. No one knows it, but his G. U. N. passcode—as I know he will have someday—is Robotnik, the only code that the scientists here on the ARK know. It will probably be him reading these files one day. _

_ Maria was playing with the baby on the observation deck—it really is beautiful to look down on the Earth like that—and was talking to him. I was their babysitter for an hour, and then it was Tanya's shift. I caught a bit of what Maria said. _

_ "Someday we'll be on Earth with Joshie, and you two will play together while I babysit you. Then when we're older, I'll be like a mom to both of you, and you'll be best friends. Then when you get to be a grown up, you'll be like a knight in shining armor. You'll protect people. Do you know it's even more pretty down there than from up here? You'll be the one to keep it that way . . ." and then it was Tanya's turn. I went down to the control center to find Private Stone and the Commander boarding, with the guards of the ARK all in ranks around them. _

_ "What's the meaning of this?" I asked. _

_ "Project Savior has become a threat. All attempts at this project must be shut down—except for the Biolizard. We already know the conditions on that." I argued, but they wouldn't have it. I was pushed aside, and the building was put on lockdown. I watched the security tapes play helplessly—I could not leave the room, as it was airtight on one end and all but on the other. Maria had run ahead of the lockdown sequence carrying Savior. Tanya was with her. They were in the platforms with the escape pods that were programmed to get to the G. U. N. headquarters in the U. S. They got there—but so did Private Stone and Joseph Iblis. Stone told Maria to step away from the release panel on the pod. Savior was inside already. She shouted that she would never do it. Stone shot, but missed and hit Tanya's left arm. Iblis cursed and yanked the gun out of his arms, and shot Maria just as she pressed the button and the pod rocketed back to Earth. The screams will forever haunt me. _

_ After that, the troops took in Joe and retreated to Earth. I stayed without them knowing. I'm sure that Stone will delete these files if he ever finds them. But if it isn't him, if it's you . . . and you know who you are . . . then I am going to let you know what I have done for the past three hours. I have finished the ultimate weapon—the Eclipse Cannon. It will bring revenge on the world that took them all from me . . . humanity will pay. I will now leave the ARK forever through the air lock, as well as this life entirely. There will be no oxygen where I am going._

_ If you're reading this, Savior—Joshua Damon—whatever you may be called now—know that you are the hope of the innocent. And that I'm sorry for having done all of this to you. _

_Gerald Isaac Robotnik_

Damon stared at the screen, unable to comprehend what he was seeing, only hearing the ringing in his ears. He could almost hear the gunshot and screaming of Tanya even as he stared out at the stars. The ARK, he imagined, was somewhere up there . . . the place he had been born . . . conflicted thoughts kept him up that night, as well as loud music from a car driving nearby.

* * *

><p><strong>I warned you! So what did you guys think? This was a part I worked really super hard on. I will upload a few more chapters on my other stories and will try to do so more often. Forgive me for waiting so long! And since I got requests, I will put in Sonic Colors. I'll be sure to add it to my list. I'm not too surprised that no one wanted Secret Rings . . . that's a difficult one to write up in this style. But the Black Knight will be very cool, in my opinion. And Scourge will be epic. That you can be sure of. And I'm telling you this now because I think you'll be annoyed: I used "Iblis" as a last name for a pun later. <strong>

***- - - -F L U T E - C H I C K- - - -***


	9. 9: Entering the ARK

**Me: Black hearted evil! Brave hearted hero! I am all I am all, I am . . . Here we go buddy, here we go buddy, here we go buddy, here we go, here we go buddy here we go . . . **

**Eric: Take out the earphones and do your thing.**

**Me: CAN YOU SEE ALL OF ME, WALK INTO MY MYSTERY, STEP INSIDE AND HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE! DO YOU REMEMBER ME? CAPTURE YOU AND SET YOU FREE, I AM ALL I AM ALL OF ME!**

**Eric: I am losing my sense of hearing. Oh, well, I guess that means less of Eggman ranting. Flute Chick does not own Sonic the Hedgehog, any of the characters or plots, OR the lyrics to _I am all of me_. **

* * *

><p>I got up early as usual the next morning. Go figure. I wished I slept in when I realized that my Chaos Emerald was missing, and that I hadn't seen it . . . since before the nightmare field trip. <em>Shoot,<em> I thought to myself. I sent a mass text to everyone involved. These were my responses:

John: YOU IDIOT!

Scarlet: That wasn't a smart move, Eric. Now we have to get it back.

Miles: Well, we can't do anything but go and get it, huh? Don't feel too bad about it.

Damon: It doesn't matter. We can get it back. His hideout isn't exactly what I'd call "impenetrable".

Amy: We can get it back. Don't worry.

Eliza: I suggest we go reclaim it sooner than later. Who knows what he'll use it for.

Jason: "Dude, let's go get it before he makes his inventions even more big and tough," he said as he rolled out of bed.

"Mom, we're going out," I said.

"Alright, be careful," she called back.

The Chaos Emerald that one of the children dropped at the field trip, the replicas that he created, and the photographic memory he had were all that Eggman needed where he was going.

"Commense Trigger mode," he keyed in on the main computer. If he did not return within a few hours, then so be it. The plan would work to the affect that these separate plans and inventions would be put into motion at certain times. Now just to lure the idiot detectives, along with that meddlesome girl who nearly found his plans, onto the craft so that they won't be able to share his secrets.

He watched the security feed of the three males poking around. One shouted something about getting the money. The next one told him to be quiet. The third found the girl, scared in the dark corner. He pressed the button to expose them to Chaos energy—leaving the Emerald vulnerable for a few moments. They all looked around, dazed, as a rabbit, a bee, a chameleon, and a crocodile.

"What do we do now?" asked the little rabbit girl.

"Hey, look, that door is open. Let's see if our mystery man is there," said the Chameleon.

They walked on board the ship unknowingly, and Eggman shut the door behind them. It was on the loading dock, so they wouldn't be able to get out on their own. Eggman himself entered the control room, where it was easy to see that it was a rocket ship, headed for the ARK, where he would return not as Eggman, but as he was before.

He would once again be John Iblis.

When we got there, it was empty and devastated.

"There's nothing here," said Blaze flatly.

"What happened? It looks like a bomb went off," Rouge said. Tails shook his head.

"This was a rocket launch zone. You don't think he went into space? But why?"

"Well, either we have to save the Wisps, defeat Dark Gaia, or possibly destroy the Eclipse Cannon," said Silver wisely. Shadow tightened.

"It's the cannon. The files I got from G. U. N. were disturbing. The whole story of Sonic Adventure 2 is starting . . . why is my life a video game?" he groaned.

"Better than starting on Shadow the Hedgehog. I like living," I said, trying and failing to lighten the mood. But he did chuckle.

"I won't give you guys the gory details of the files, but I know where we can get a ship to go into space. I just don't know how big it is or how to work it," he warned. Tails grinned.

"I'll make any modifications. I'll also hook it up to the Chaos Emerald tracker—I just finished it—so we can follow Eggman straight to where he is." Shadow Chaos Controlled out and was back in a few seconds with a red and white space pod.

"Commander Stone will have my head for this, but I'm going to take it anyway. This is the pod that took me from the ARK to Earth. Think you can use this, Tails?"

"It'll be about five minutes once I'm at the workshop."

"We don't have time to waste. I'll get you there in seconds. Who knows how close Eggman is now?" said Shadow.

"Are you okay, man?" I asked.

"The files involved me . . . and . . . it's just . . . I can't talk now. We need to move on," he said anxiously. He took Tails and the pod and Chaos Controlled out.

"What do you think was wrong?" asked Rouge.

"I think there's more to his past than he expected. He's having it hard, coping with it. I just hope that he'll be okay," answered Amy. Soon enough, he and Tails were back with the pod, which didn't seem like it had changed. Tails pressed a button. Then it became the equivalent of a very, very, very cool rocket. It was sleek, small, and looked pretty fast.

"This will get us right to where Eggman is. He won't see us coming." We all got in.

Vector, Espio, Charmy, and Cream were all in the loading dock. It was just an empty warehouse-like room.

"Are you okay?" asked Espio, turning to the little girl.

"I-I'm fine. Just scared. I know I'm Cream the Rabbit now. My normal name is Nellie," she said.

"When I'm normal, people call me Ryan," said Charmy.

"And I'm normally Sasuke, but it's Espio now. That's Ross—well, Vector," said the chameleon, looking loathingly at the crocodile, who was listening to his music as usual. They finally stopped.

"Where are we?" asked Cream. Espio sighed.

"Space Colony ARK."

The trip took about a minute, but Eggman still beat us there. Damon led us down the halls, and he told us that he somehow knew where he was going. The main control room and observation deck was in the center. We headed in, Damon in front. Suddenly, bright spotlights blinded me, and we were in a cage that buzzed with electricity.

"Hello, world. As you can see, I am Doctor Eggman, and I have captured the pesky little heroes that would normally stand in my way. I am broadcasting on every channel in every TV all across the world, and if you can't understand English, then there are subtitles, so your leaders have no reason to pretend they don't hear my demands.

"I am aboard Space Colony ARK, home of the Biolizard, the Eclipse Cannon, and what had once been Project Savior. You see . . ." he grinned evilly, ". . . my true name is Joseph Iblis. I worked here for the few months that the Savior Project, part of G. U. N., was in session. I was locked up after taking a gun from the current commander of the agency and shooting a girl by the name of Maria Robotnik, who died almost instantly. My colleague Gerald hated me and created an Eclipse Cannon to show the world that took Maria from him his revenge. I decided to use it myself. Surrender to me, and I won't begin using it on you. If you doubt my power, this should clear your minds." He stood in front of a large control panel, which had a circular disk about the size of my dinner table coming out of it upward. The Chaos Emeralds were in this disk. He pressed a lot of buttons, and I looked around. The walls on one side were actually glass, so you could see the stars outside, and so was the floor. One door to the side had a sign above it that said "Escape Pods". Some people came through this room, and I put my finger to my mouth to tell them to be quiet. When I saw them, I nearly let my jaw drop to the ground.

It was Cream and the Chaotix.

I motioned for them to free us without him seeing. Espio turned invisible and must have pressed the release button, and we quickly got him off of the controls—but not before he blasted a satellite out of the sky. I saw the explosion and was a little dazed. Shadow was immediately at Iblis's throat.

"You killed Maria. I don't doubt that you probably were the one to get Joshua into E-13 as well. You're basically the reason Tanya Von Garthe went batty, why Gerald killed himself, and why I'm here today rather than Joshua himself," he said darkly. I didn't know who Joshua was or what E-13 meant, but I didn't like the look in Shadow's eyes.

"I don't deny any of it, Shadow. But could it be? Are you the project? Are you Savior?" His crazy eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yes, I am. I hate you with every fiber of my being, Iblis. I would love to leave you alone in the Biolizard lab, but I'm not heartless like you. But I can garuntee that you'll spend a lot of time now in Prison Island." But Egghead—Iblis—only laughed.

"I am Joseph Iblis, the master of secrecy, the greatest genius of all . . . I prepared in case this would happen. I am no fool, about to be outsmarted by mere children. Seven projects of mine are hidden, and a timer on each of them dictates whether they are to be released. The first one will start in only a week after today—and once it's out, I will be able to escape."

"So these . . . Iblis Triggers . . . are spread throughout the world, with no indication as to what they are?"

"Only my insignia. It is a flame with two wings on either side—not that it matters, for you will never see it in time."

"Tails—Cream—lug this dude back home, will you? The police can take it from there," I said. They nodded and, holding his hands behind his back, shoved him into the escape pod and launched toward Earth.

"We'll worry about Iblis's Triggers later. Now we have a gigantic deadly lizard to get rid of, as well as any other stuff," said Rouge, and we moved on. There were old blobs of chemicals that were moving across the floor on their own, and I didn't care to touch them. Some of them crackled with electricity, while others were smoking fumes. Not exactly the safest thing around. I heard buzzing down the hall.

"Hey, Rouge, Knux, do you guys want to go check that out?" asked Shadow.

"No problem."

They went the opposite direction of their friends and found a gigantic red and black robot.

"Omega must destroy. Destroy. Target locked," it said, turning towards them.

"I don't like the sound of that," said Rouge wisely. Knuckles got into a fighting stance.

"Let's break this little toy," he said.

We kept moving. I heard a roar from one direction.

"I think that's the Biolizard," said Shadow.

"I agree. I guess that's the first Iblis Trigger," said Silver, and I nearly tripped trying not to laugh. Then we found the Chaotix again—they'd gone in another direction when Cream and Tails took Eggman to Earth.

"Look, we came here because we were going to get a lead on a case. That crazy guy tricked us, obviously, but he knew the name of the person we're trying to investigate, so we figured he might know something. So might you. Now is this going to be done the easy way or the hard way?" asked Vector.

"Guys, we don't have time for this," said Shadow.

"I'll handle them," said Silver.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Completely." There was an alarm starting.

"It's the security alarm—someone needs to get to the control room again and shut it off!" said Shadow.

"I'll do it!" said Amy and Blaze.

"Both of you go. We have a lizard to beat," I said grimly. Shadow and I moved on, leaving them behind.

Silver turned towards Espio.

"Alright, where'd you go and how do you know your way around here so well? And what's this case that you're on?" he asked.

"What makes you think I'm the one leading them around?"

"Vector's the brawn, Charmy's the moral support and you're the brains. That much anyone can figure out."

"I was once an assistant on this ship. I knew nothing about the main scientists or what had happened here until he announced it just now."

"I'll believe you there. And the case?"

"A police officer hired us to investigate a disappearance."

"Let me guess. It was about Jason Sarali," said Silver. _Things always seem to be connected lately. _

"How did you know?" Silver looked around for security cameras. Then he changed into Jason for a minute.

"I _am_ Jason Sarali. I was kidnapped by someone from another dimension and left there for nine years. If you hear about Eliza Smith, she was there with me. Will you guys help take down the contraptions that are all coming to life?" Vector cracked his knuckles.

"With pleasure."

* * *

><p><strong>Eric: Better now? <strong>

**Me: Well, for me. I guess. But right now you're stuck on a space station with a giant man-and-hedgehog-eating-lizard. **

**Eric: DAMON! GET IN HERE! FLUTE CHICK WANTS TO-**

**Me: Shut up shut up shut up shut up. That's it. I'm going to make you have a crazy dream after all within the next three chapters. **

**Eric: Please tell me it's not the one with the concert and the chili dogs. **

**Me: *Smiles evilly* **

**Well, guys, I hope you liked this one! Please review, and check out my other stories if you haven't already!**


	10. 10: Fight for the World

**Well, this is a pretty big chapter. And I did get my revenge on Eric. And we get a little input from dead people! Please enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Shadow and I found a small door with E-13 painted on the door.<p>

"This is it then," I said.

"It is. Don't get killed," he advised.

"Same to you," I replied. He opened the door and the room we entered was dark and smelled like the squid I had to dissect for Biology (after Egghead left, of course). Then the lights turned on and I was looking at a gigantic orange man-eating monster straight from the video game—only more terrifying, considering it actually wanted to eat me.

It was giant—at least as big as it seemed in the game, or bigger—orange, with a bunch of wires hooked into its skin, all connected to the life support machine in the center of the room.

"I'll distract it while you go for the machine," I said quickly.

"Got it," he answered. I leapt in front of the monstrous thing and realized that tiny me next to it wouldn't be much of a threat or distraction. I turned human to make myself bigger and slightly more threatening-looking than Shadow, and did a very common thing used on Earth to get attention.

Screaming insults.

"Hey, your mother was a gecko!" I shouted, first thing that came to mind. I don't know if it understood me, but it swung its head in my direction.

"That's right, ugly, I mean you!" I said, sounding way less petrified than I felt. It could swallow me whole.

I ran back and forth in a zigzag pattern, dodging the spikes and fangs on its head as I attacked its legs, making it seem like I wanted to weaken it.

Meanwhile, Damon was smashing the life support on it like no tomorrow, spindashing, Chaos Spear-ing, and even putting a Chaos Blast against it. It was mutilated just as I tripped—missing gnashing teeth by an inch. Its head dropped to the floor.

"I think we did it," I said. He shook his head.

"Probably not. Let's check on the others, though—they might need help." We Chaos Controlled—I think that was the first time I did it myself—to find Rouge and Knuckles standing over a smoking, crackling pile of metal.

"Well, we don't have to worry about Omega coming to kill us," said Rouge grimly.

"You all right?" I asked.

"We're all a little banged up, but it's nothing we can't handle," said Knux.

"Hang in there. You guys check with Blaze and Amy; we'll find Silver and get all together in one spot. Hopefully this is over with," Shadow said. I turned back into a hedgehog. We found ourselves soon next to Silver and the Chaotix.

"Guys, we're all meeting on the observation deck. We need to stick together," I said. Silver nodded and we all got back quickly.

"Amy, Blaze, what are you guys looking at?" said Shadow suddenly. The alarms had long since stopped, and the place was actually eerily quiet. They were looking at files on the computer.

"Rouge hacked it and we started looking. Maria Robotnik was real, and she had a baby brother named Joshua—"

"—I read the entire story, so I don't need to hear it again," Shadow said stiffly, "and it's sort of about me, too, so I think you should get off of it now . . ."

"Oh, okay. Sorry," said Rouge hastily, closing it and turning off the computer.

"Don't say sorry unless you mean it. I don't really have time for empty words," said Shadow, and it almost sounded like he was quoting someone. He sounded irritated, so maybe that was it, but still, it was odd, because I'd never heard the phrase in particular before.

* * *

><p>Elaine stood up, shocked. She had been watching the broadcast when Eggman had shown up, and the others. The feed would have been almost boring if it hadn't been so tense—if the Eclipse Cannon was used, everyone on the planet was sunk. Literally.<p>

But now Shadow had just said something that rocked Elaine's world.

_I don't really have time for empty words._ That was something she had said to someone that she knew very well at a recent Halloween dance. She recalled the conversation immediately.

"So what do you do in spare time?" Damon had asked idly.

"I like to read, write, sing . . . listen to music . . . and draw occasionally," she had replied.

"Sounds interesting. What kind of books do you like?"

"Oh, just about any type of fiction there is. Fantasy is my favorite—magic spells and impossible powers, you know."

"I like that too—sometimes I think that writers write those types of things to help readers escape their boring lives and normal problems," Damon trailed off. The words "boring" and "normal" almost seemed like he had put air quotes around them . . . like he was being sarcastic.

"Are you liking tonight?" Elaine had asked after a minute or so of just listening to the slow dance music and swaying back and forth.

"Yeah! I'm having one of the best nights of my life . . . I don't normally date, and . . . I'd like to do this again sometime soon," he said. Elaine sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"For once, I believe those words."

"What do you mean?"

"When people say things over and over again . . . they become cliché, used, and meaningless. That would almost sound like a line that an actor was reciting in a movie, except for the fact that you're being sincere. People aren't often sincere anymore . . ."

"I guess I know what you're saying. Like when you automatically say "Hi" "Bye" and "Love you mom" every day, you start not meaning it."

"Exactly. I hate it—which is why I don't talk to people much. They start talking automatically like a machine, and then I just figure that I don't have time for empty words."

And now Elaine was hearing her own words from the mouth of Shadow the Hedgehog.

Her mind was on overdrive. _Mr. Namggerd was Dr. Eggman. Damon admitted to working for G. U. N. He, Eric, and Jason disappear a lot—same with Amy, Miles, John, Eliza, and Scarlet. Eric's changed a lot lately . . . they all have . . . and Eric at that field trip, he saved us all . . . and then, they all laughed at Eric's costume, especially Damon . . . there's really only one explanation. _

Elaine began writing furiously in her notebook, a thing she did when something big was going on. It wasn't a journal—she wrote poems, bits of songs, and little stories in this. Now it was a poem, titled _Shadowy Figure, Secret Truth. _But she would stop soon when she realized that the horror wasn't over yet.

* * *

><p>Suddenly the computer screen turned back on, with the face of an old man in the forefront.<p>

"My name is Gerald Robotnik. I was part of the organized group of scientists that helped to create both this space station and the monster called the Biolizard. I have no love for anyone any longer, as the great disease known as humanity has destroyed the only people I cared for—my grandson, granddaughter, and my dear friend Tanya, who has lost sanity because of the human race. It was you all who created and supported G. U. N. Society led my daughter to have to leave her two children here with me because she could not care for them. The bane of goodness . . . Iblis . . . the man most hated in my heart . . . this destruction is for his sake, that he might suffer the most. Know that he is the reason for my actions now. Space Colony ARK will fall to Earth. Its impact will destroy about one fourth of the world, and the dust and debris in the sky will block out the sun, sending the world into another ice age. The temperatures will freeze everyone on point of contact." I gaped at the man's grimace—in the game, he hadn't looked very real, but this . . . he meant it when he said he hated Iblis, when he declared his lack of love for the world.

The entire ship shook, and I heard a roar.

"It's the final hazard. Does everyone have a Chaos Emerald for Shadow and I?" I asked quickly. In seconds, we were Super, and we Chaos Controlled outside into deep space. The Biolizard was now gigantic, the size of the ship itself. We were three-foot tall hedgehogs that glowed in the dark. However, it was basically mindless.

"Blast it until it dies?" I suggested.

"Go for the big red welt on its back. That's where it's weak," he advised. He sent about fifty Chaos Spears at once at it, while I myself actually spindashed the red spot that was where it was once connected to the life support machine. It sent strange glowing blobs of goo—I could have sworn it was spit, or maybe venom—at us, but it missed. Soon enough, it was dead, and stopped moving. However, the ship still was because of the momentum caused by the Biolizard. It would still crash.

"We've got to teleport it so it stops moving towards Earth," I said.

"I don't think you get it, Sonic—not _we_, _I._ It's what I was created for, to protect everyone."

"But you don't have to sacrifice your life for it! I'll do it, Shadow! My parents lost Jason, so it's nothing new to them! You've got a little sister!"

"My family isn't my real family, and you know it."

"They might as well be!"

"I can't let you do this," he argued.

"I can't let you! I don't care what happened in the game—wait—let's both do it then! If we each put in half the energy, then we won't fall to Earth and die, because we won't have drained the Emeralds as much," I said as fast as I could. I was not going to let my friend die.

Shadow said, staring into the eyes of Sonic, "Fine. On three."

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><p>"One," Sonic said. Shadow thought of both Maria Robotnik and Maria Von Garthe. Both of them were his sisters . . . and his parents . . . he couldn't let them all go. <em>And Elaine . . .<em>

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><p>"Two," Shadow said, and I looked back at the ARK. Everyone I cared about was in danger . . . if we pulled this off . . . well, I'd certainly have a boost of self-esteem in knowing that I've saved the world. If we didn't . . . I'd never forgive myself.<p>

"Three. Chaos Control!" We both yelled, and in a huge flash of light, we were in another spot in seconds. The ship had stopped, but I was totally drained of energy.

"I think . . . we . . . did . . . it . . ." I said, before blacking out completely.

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><p>Shadow heard Eric saying something before being knocked out by lack of energy. He then entertained a very interesting dream. As Damon, he was sitting in a grassy field with three people around him. One was Elaine. Another was none other than Maria Robotnik herself, seeming to be frozen in a distant world. The third . . . well . . . he looked like Damon used to, before he ever touched the Chaos Emerald, except no scar, and he didn't wear black. He too, was frozen. Elaine turned to Damon and smiled.<p>

"Hi, Damon. Wanna listen?" She offered one of the earbuds from her iPod, one of which was in her ear already. They stared at a misty night sky while listening to Never Turn Back.

"It really means something, doesn't it?" she asked.

"To not let the past drag you down . . . let history help you stop making wrong choices, but not letting things you can't change stop you from moving on," Damon answered.

"I agree. It's nice," she said, and then she froze, and the music stopped. Maria Robotnik unfroze and gestured for him to stand.

"Hi, Damon. I understand that things are hard to believe with everything that's happened lately, but I promise you that I'm proud to have known you . . . even for a little bit," she smiled. Her eyes were not the sad ones of a dead girl—but the happy ones of someone who was satisfied with life and ready for a clear future.

"Thank you, Maria, and I'm sorry that it had to be so short."

"Just take care of your sister. I really like her . . . we'd be best friends in a fair world," she said, freezing, too. Then the boy walked towards them. He looked at Maria, then at Damon.

"I'm glad it was you. I don't think I'd be able to see my sister dead in front of me—unless I was the same way, which I am," he said.

"So you're Joshua. I thought you died when you were a baby," Damon frowned.

"This . . . is what I would have been, growing up. I wouldn't have become Shadow, and well . . . I guess it's for the best."

"It really stinks that you never even got a life, and I did. If we could switch places every once in a while, I wouldn't mind," Damon said truthfully.

"I would like that. Sadly, it's not happening. Don't let me get you down. You don't need to mourn someone so long."

"But . . ."

"That's why you always wear black, isn't it? Subconsciously, it's me. I won't weigh you down. I might visit again, though, give advice . . . that sort of thing. I consider you a brother after all."

"Same to you, Josh," Damon answered.

"I like that. Makes this seem a little more real," chuckled the boy that Damon would have sworn was a clone of him only months ago.

"When will I see you again?"

"Look in the mirror. I might not look like it, but I'm there," he said, and Damon's world went black yet again.

* * *

><p>Strange dreams followed as I was probably hurtling towards Earth. There was one with a concert—Damon as Human Shadow was the lead singer and guitarist, Maria Robotnik and Maria Von Garthe were also vocalists and pianists, and a guy that looked like Damon used to was on drums as a back up singer. They sang Never Turn Back while the Amy waitresses handed out chili dogs. Then the vampire dude from Twilight was coming in with a hot dog suit flipping a sign that said "Eat at Eggman diner." This was followed by a fight in which I recall flying chili. Then a bright blue light flashed, and next thing you know, I had my face full of dirt. Looking around, I saw horse hooves, black smoke with creepy glowing eyes peering out, and the bottom of a long, light red cloak—but that's a story for another time.<p>

I woke up in my own bed, about a day later from what Jason told me. We couldn't have an excuse for our parents, so of course all of our families got together, and the guys happily voted for me to explain everything. Did I ever mention that my friends are wonderful people that I occasionally want to strangle?

* * *

><p><strong>This is one of my favorites to write about. What do you guys think? Good? Bad? Did I have a good representation of this? And yes, the little tidbit about the last dream will be talked about in following chapters. Next chapter I will talk about them (mainly Eric) explaining to their parents what has been going on, and then they will have a slumber party to celebrate the epic win they just had. Details? You'll have to wait, I'm afraid . . . sayonara!<strong>


	11. 11: Bedtime Stories

**Here's the next chapter, guys! I hope you like it!**

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><p>So we were all gathered in my living room—my parents, Miles's parents, Amy's parents (who were there for both her and Nellie at that moment), Eliza's parents, John's and Scarlet's parents, Damon's parents—who were there for moral support, according to Damon—and of course all of us. I cleared my throat.<p>

"You're all wondering why we disappeared, then came back all banged up. You're wanting answers. I was voted to be the one to give them—thanks a lot, guys—so that's why we're all here. I don't know how to start except from the beginning. There are parts I don't know, so guys, if you could fill in on my gaps, that would be great." And so I told the story, from start to finish. They did add in their own details, but it was mainly me.

"And so . . . the ones who were fighting on the ARK . . . that was us. I know some of you are frightened for us—after all, we're your kids, and you don't want us hurt. But we're not doing it for some rush, or to get glory. We're doing it because it's the right thing, and isn't that what you taught us to do? We can't let ourselves stand by when things like Joe Iblis happen. We can't let people get hurt when we stop it. And we know it's dangerous—we've just beaten a giant lizard twice that was either going to eat us or crush us when it crashed into the Earth. We aren't going to give up on this—these powers were given to us for a reason. I'm going to be a hero for the sake of everyone on Earth, and I think I speak for all of us that this is something that we have to do," I said. My mom was teary-eyed.

"Don't leave us again, honey," she pleaded. I knew better than to say yes.

"I won't make a promise I can't keep, but no matter how many times I'm gone, Mom, I will always, always come back." She smiled and wiped away her tears. I noticed everyone was comforting their parents as well. My dad grinned at me this time.

"I'm proud of you. You're my little hero, son," he said, ruffling my hair.

"Dad," I complained, fixing it.

"You all have worked so hard. You can all have a sleepover at our home to celebrate your victory," said Scarlet's mom, and I let my mouth gape open wide. Scarlet had a huge, mansion-like house. I'd never actually been inside.

We all went over that night and watched movies, played games, and talked a lot. Soon enough it was dark outside. I was sure Nellie needed a bedtime story when she looked longingly at the books on the shelf. The others were doing random stuff around the room, from games, to reading, to listening to their iPods.

"Hey, Nellie, you want to hear a story?" I asked.

"Is it a fairy tale?" she asked.

"Something like that, yeah. Except that it really happened, just recently," I said. The rest of them got quiet. I chuckled.

"Have you ever heard the story of King Arthur?"

"Sort of. What's it like?"

"Well, this is the story that came after he became a king. This is the story of the Black Knight . . ."

"I'll it to you, Nell," I said, "And the best part of it is that it _happened for real._" The others looked at me like I was insane. But I just smiled.

"Does it have a happy ending?" she asked.

"Yes, it does. Now, it starts with a kingdom. A wizard girl was running away from the castle through a field. It was dark and cloudy. A king in black armor, riding a dark horse, was galloping after her. He took his scabbard—that's the thing that holds a sword on his belt—and waved it through the air. It was like it cut through, and dark creatures began crawling and flying out of the hole it made. The wizard girl clutched her staff, scared. Then she began to sing her spell."

"Sing?" asked Damon, giving me a sideways look. Now they were all listening. I smirked.

"Yes, sing. It made the spell more powerful than if she spoke it. '_Ifaras zaras yezaras . . . Ifaris zaris yezarik . . ._ Oh, brave knight, swift as the wind! Heed my call!' She would have reminded you of Elaine. A beam of blue light shot into the sky, and someone came falling through it. It was a boy with blue hair, red shoes, and a blue and white outfit . . ."

"It was you!" said Nellie, giggling. Damon rolled his eyes. I nodded.

"It was me."

"Well, I landed flat on my face in the dirt to tell the truth," I chuckled.

"But I got up and looked around at the monsters. It was easy enough to see that they were evil and the girl needed help. So I ran right through them—literally! They went up in smoke when I hit them hard enough, and so I stopped by her. She looked pretty surprised, to say the least. Then I went after the king on the horse—but she grabbed me by the arm, pulled me back, and teleported us away in a magic wind. Now, I wasn't there, but I was later told what happened when I left.

"There were three people on the cliff, watching. The king rode up to them. He ordered them to spread out and find the wizard and I, and to slay us on sight. They nodded and he rode off. One of the knights was unsure—'she is the royal wizard, after all'—but the one who seemed to be in charge argued that the king's orders were absolute. The third knight pondered that the king had changed and was worried about the kingdom. They all spread out, following their king's orders.

"Back to Merlina and I. We were walking in a distant woods, and she explained to me that we were in the land ruled by King Arthur—but the king had been bewitched by the scabbard that granted immortality to whoever held it, and that he was summoning the Knights of the Underworld, who were those monsters I'd fought earlier. She had summoned me to help defeat him. There was a sacred sword in the misty lake ruled by Nimue, the lady of the lake—she's a bit like a princess, Nellie, except she can do magic—and I didn't bother to hear the rest of the explanation about the sword because I had a funny feeling that I knew about it. She stopped me long enough to give me a fake sword to practice with, and then I found it sticking out of the rock. She spoke before I pulled it out, though.

"'You do realize that if you do this, you'll be known as the blackest of knights, the slayer of kings, a villain for all centuries to come,' she said. I told her that I guessed I couldn't be a hero all the time—I'd be able to live with it. Well, I pulled out the sword—that thing was heavy!—and looked at it. As far as swords go, it was kind of shabby. Then it talked, and—"

"The sword talked?" asked Scarlet, frowning, "Swords don't talk. This sounds more and more like a cartoon."

"I'm getting to it! Yes, the sword talked. A lot. Too much. Okay, so I noticed that there was a sort of a face on the sword near the base of the blade. It was glaring at me. 'This is the one? Why, he's only a knave!' He said in a deep voice with an accent, which was a little thicker than Merlina's. I guess you could say I was annoyed from the start. I got some sword practice, but had to visit a very young blacksmith with blonde hair to sharpen the sword. He was surprised to meet a talking sword, and was introduced to it. The sword's name was Caliburn, and the blacksmith said that the name sounded familiar.

"I took Caliburn through the woods and began cutting down monsters on my way. We had to get to the Lady of the Lake to ask her what to do. However, I ran into someone on the way.

"'Halt!' a familiar voice yelled. I turned and there was a tan guy in black armor with white gauntlets and boots, and though his helmet covered most of his face, I could recognize the red and black spikes anywhere, even if one of those spikes was part of the helmet.

"'Shadow?' I asked. He scowled.

"'I am Lancelot, Knight of the Round Table. I am ordered to slay you, apprentice knight, enemy to my king,' he said, raising his sword, 'what is your name?'

"Now, I wasn't going to let Caliburn answer, so I spoke quickly. 'I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog,' I said, raising my sword. 'Are you sure you don't want to run?' asked Lancelot. I stood my ground. Then he growled and we started to fight."

"This Lancelot seems familiar," said Scarlet, chuckling. I had been doing an imitation of Damon's voice when I spoke as Lancelot, and he scowled more and more at me every time I did it.

"How about we reenact the battle with Sonic and Lancelot," he challenged, picking up a red lightsaber that was apparently Scarlet's little brother's. I grabbed the blue one.

"Be my guest," I said, and we battled. Nellie giggled the entire time. Then we got a knock on the door. It was Elaine, who had called around and wanted to join us.

"I was just telling Nellie a very involved bedtime story," I said, putting down the toy. Damon turned red and put his down.

"Please continue. Am I in this story?" she asked.

"Sort of. There's a singing wizard named Merlina in it. It's about Sonic and the Black Knight," said Amy.

"Well, then, I have to see the battle between Sonic and Lancelot. Continue, Eric and Damon," she smirked.

"Okay, but how did you know that's what part we were at?" asked Damon. She blushed.

"I . . . well . . ."

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><p><strong>Oh, silly Elaine now has to explain that she figured them out. Fun times are coming up! Oh, and I promise that I'll try to work on my other stories as well. I might be making a Legend of Zelda, Hunger Games, and a few others right now. I've got a lot of ideas for this one right now, so we'll see . . .<strong>


	12. 12: The Knight, A Wizard, A Lady

**Finally! I've been trying to finish this section forever! Oh, and by the way, this 'bedtime story' already happened . . . the dreams that Eric had in between the ARK and Earth? The one with the horse? Yeah, that's this. The story that he's telling will be finished next chapter. And I'll ask yet another important question at the bottom. **

* * *

><p>"I know your secret, guys," she finally said.<p>

"What secret? That John still sleeps with a night light?" I snickered. He turned red and was about to strangle me when she shook her head.

"No. Thanks for the info, though, Eric. I don't know too many details, but one thing I do know is that Damon is Shadow the Hedgehog." Damon turned to her, surprised. If there was anything he had expected, I know for sure it hadn't been that.

"How'd you work that one out?" he asked doubtfully.

"On the ARK, while it was still broadcasting—it did that until Final Hazard came around. The media is going wild with ideas, but they're sticking to the story of the game . . . they think Shadow's dead, in that case—but anyway, Shadow said 'I don't have time for empty words' which is something I said to him at the Halloween dance. I figured you all are a part of it too. Damon's the only one I guessed for sure though." She looked at us expectantly.

"Well . . . there's no point in denying it. Do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Not a soul. Not even Aunt Laura," she swore.

"Alrighty then. I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog," I said with a straight face. She chuckled.

"You must be joking. Little Eric, the kid who I was forced to play house with in kindergarten, is the hero after all. Please continue, like I said before," she said.

"I still need to get back at him for doing a bad imitation of my voice. I don't sound like that. Have at you, knave!" shouted Damon in a mock accent, swinging the lightsaber. I soon defeated him, stealing his 'sword' in the process.

"That was actually basically how the fight went down. He was shocked that I beat him, and I took his sword. I left him there and moved on to the lake.

"The Lady of the Lake, Nimue, was like a princess in a little gazebo at the end of a dock in the magic lake. She had a blue, aqua, gold, and white gown and an aqua headband in her pink hair. She wore gold earrings. She had a soft, gentle voice, and I sat down with her.

"'Greetings, Sonic, Knight from another world. Let's sit. Hello, Caliburn—I haven't seen one of the Sacred Swords for a long time,' she said. Caliburn replied with some sophisticated, pompous answer. I wondered what that meant. Then she explained that the scabbard for Excalibur was able to make the holder immortal, and only a certain power I know of will defeat it,' But then she looked worried.

"'I can't let you go against him. If you took the scabbard . . . what if the same thing that happened to him happened to you? The only way for me to be sure is to see if you're a true knight. You have to pass three tests: free the innocents from King Arthur's dungeon, offer compassion to those in need, and defeat the knights of the Underworld. You will surely have the qualities of courage, kindness, and chivalry if you complete all three within one day. I will share the secret to defeat him if you do this. Good luck,' she said, and she faded away into the mist over the lake.

"Caliburn and I set off immediately through the castle dungeons, cutting down the knights as we went. Then we headed out towards the fields to the west, but I stopped when I saw a little girl crying. She wore a hood so it was hard to see her face, but she was definitely four or five. Well, I couldn't just leave her there, even with the deadline. I stopped to see what was going on.

"'What's wrong?' I asked. 'It was a big dragon! It took Mommy, and Daddy, and everyone away!" she sobbed. She couldn't have been more than four or five—she looked like one of the villagers. It was in the afternoon and there was little time left. 'Where is the dragon?' I asked. 'In a cave at the top of that mountain," she pointed. I saw it in the distance. 'Okay, I'll go help them,' I told her. Caliburn started arguing, but I didn't listen—the kid needed my help, and if I didn't finish, then I'd find another way to beat the king. I ran through the plains that were before the mountain."

"While going through some ruins, I met another of the knights. He had twin swords, each in one hand, curved like flames. His armor was bright red, with spikes on the knuckles of his gauntlets. I muttered to myself, 'I don't suppose you'll let me by nicely?'

"'I am Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table,' he said. I replied, 'well, you sure look like this knucklehead I know . . .' His face, or what was visible of it, turned red with anger. 'You dare mock me? An act most unwise, my friend,' he said, preparing to fight. I didn't want to lose more time, so I tried to reason with him: 'Wait, I don't want trouble, I'm going to that mountain to save some people from a dragon!' He looked confused at first, then shook his head. 'Bah! You cannot fool me with your lies! No doubt you're after the dragon's treasure!' I groaned. 'You _sound_ just like that knucklehead too,' I responded. 'You have defied King Arthur, knave! These ruins of ancient times shall be your grave!' I chuckled and asked what was with the rhyming. He threw one of his swords at me." As John did the same with a pillow.

"That's it! Quit making me look like an idiot!" he shouted.

"Jeez, I'm only telling a story, John, no need toACK!" I shouted as another pillow hit my face.

"DEAD MEAT, SARALI! UNDERSTAND?" he shouted, "THIS IS WAR!" and he grabbed a pair of plastic forks from dinner earlier. I grabbed a plastic knife.

"Still sounding like a knucklehead!" I shouted. We went back and forth, and I finally knocked them both out of his hands without getting skewered. When that happened, he huffed and sat back on the couch.

"Now back to the story—yeah, the fight went down a bit like that. I guess I was pretty shocked when he collapsed to his knees and held one sword to his throat.

"I grabbed it from him immediately. 'What in the world? ! Do you even care about your own life?' I asked. Then as I saw him reach for the other, I grabbed it too so he wouldn't commit suicide. 'Silence! A knight that cannot serve his king and follow out with orders is unfit to live!' he said, pounding the ground. 'Isn't there more to being a knight than just serving a king? Isn't there more to life than just doing what you're told?' I asked. He looked dazed. 'Huh?' 'Sorry, I have to go—saving people from a dragon, remember?' and I took off. I managed to get through the cave fine—a bunch of the knights and some creepy giant spiders got in my way, but I freed the people and led them out safely. By then, the sun had set. I started to head to the kid, trying to think of a way to confess to Caliburn that I didn't have the slightest idea of what I was supposed to do. Nimue seemed nice, but she wouldn't trust me with the secret now. All there was to do was to tell the little girl that it was safe.

"'Hey kid, have you been waiting here the entire time? . . . sorry . . . but everyone's safe now. You can go home,'" I said. She smiled and nodded. 'Thank you . . . and sorry about tricking you.' Then her image wavered like a ripple in the water, and Nimue was standing in her place. 'You have shown skill, courage, and compassion. You're a knight with a true heart—and I will tell you the secret to defeating King Arthur.' She took us back to her lake and explained that the three sacred swords held by the Knights of the Round Table combined with the power of Caliburn would defeat him.

"Then I decided to check on Merlina for a bit—I didn't know where she had gone and wanted to make sure she was safe. I found her by the lake. She was singing quietly. (Try thinking of Merlina's theme from the game)

"'_Little rose starts as a seed, stepped on by the men. It grows, past weeds and shears and blood and swords, beautiful to no end. Its thorns protect it from most certain harm, and its sweet scent often known for a certain charm. But why do roses grow and bloom, struggling to survive, when in the end, despite its work, it's dead and not alive? Why do we creatures live if only for an end? Little rose starts as a seed, stepped on by the men.' _She hummed the eerie tune, picking a young rose out of the ground. I don't know how long I stood there, but it seemed already like it was wilting. 'Merlina, are you okay?' I asked. 'Oh! Sonic, I didn't know that you were there! Did you get Nimue to help?' I explained the situation. 'Then go! Hurry!' I looked back at her once, still staring at the quickly withering rose, before setting off.

"Well, what would you do? I ran to the mines where Percival supposedly was, where they mined coal. Caliburn warned me on the way that Sir Percival, the Knight of the Grail, was one of the most skilled knights and that she would be very hard to beat." Eliza's eye twitched.

"Well, I saw her soon enough, in silver armor, holding a thin rapier blade like they use for fencing—only there was a real point, and I wasn't exactly wearing armor. She said nothing. She just got into a fighting stance. Then, finally, she spoke, 'State your name and your master,' and I said, 'I'm Sonic. I don't really have a master, unless you count the wind that leads me where it goes.' She frowned. 'Let's see if you can match _my_ skills, sir knight!' And charged at me. Now, Sir Percival," I paused, with Eliza looking enraged at me.

"_Sir Percival_? Can't you at least call her _Lady Percival_, Eric?" she asked.

"Sorry, but that's what she's called," I said.

"You give me no choice, then," she replied dully. Before I could respond with a "huh?" she charged, and I dodged by an inch. She now was holding a thin toy sword. There were a lot of old kid's toys down here, so I took up the lightsaber again.

"En garde! (Sorry if it's misspelled, I guessed)" she proclaimed, and we went into an epic fight in which she lost, sword clattering to the ground.

"As I was saying, now, Sir Percival was a crafty warrior and had special moves—I nearly got beaten—when I won. We were near the edge of a cliff, and she was backing away from me, when the rocks below her made her slip—the lava below wasn't exactly encouraging—and I stuck Caliburn into the cliff face and grabbed her hand before she could fall too far.

"'Why did you save me?' she asked. 'Are you kidding? I'm not heartless. I guess you could say my heart is my other master, as I don't go anywhere without it guiding me,' I said thoughtfully. Caliburn sighed. 'What? Do you have anything wise to say, oh mentor?' I snapped. 'You are no longer a simple knave, Sonic. You have mastered the code of chivalry. Now, you shall be known as Sir Sonic, Knight of the Wind.' I smirked, thinking it was about time. I pulled _lady_ Percival up the cliff and headed to Avalon—King Arthur's island. He began to use strange fireballs coming from his sword, sending them at me while galloping to safety on his horse. I hit them back and he slowed down enough for me to hit him. He fell off his horse, which galloped away, and groaned, 'No! How can this be?' I stood above him and put the three swords in a triangle shape around him so that his scabbard wouldn't work.

"Then I took Caliburn and slashed right through his chest, beating the evil king once and for all," I finished as both Miles and Nellie fell asleep. But everyone else was wide awake, so I grinned.

"And, just like one of the Knights of the Underworld, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. I hurried to the castle courtyard, where I found the knights and Merlina. She was smirking.

"'Your king was nothing more than an illusion that my grandfather conjured up. He never truly held Excalibur. Ah, Sonic.' She turned to me. The knights had their helmets raised—they looked like Shadow, Blaze, and Knuckles. Gawain asked, 'How did you come by that scabbard? Where is the king?' I explained the truth. 'As I said, King Arthur was nothing but an illusion, a piece of magic.' The scabbard, which I'd nearly forgotten about, was suddenly in her hands.

"'Thank you, Sonic. With this scabbard . . . I can make this an eternal kingdom, one that never ends, where _life_ never ends!' Her hair came loose form her braid, and both she and the scabbard began to glow. 'What?' I shouted, outraged. She _used_ me to do make the kingdom unable to end. Suddenly, there was a tremor in the ground.

"'Percival! Lancelot! Gawain! Let's get out of here!' I shouted. The underworld invasion had begun."

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><p><strong>Well, here's the question. You get to choose in the reviews. Which plot will I do next?<strong>

**Sonic Unleashed? Or Scourge the Hedghehog?**

**Keep in mind, I can do either one. And if you don't want either, vote 'other' and I'll go with my special suprise third option. See ya!**


	13. 13: As the Story Ends Night Falls

**Well, it's two votes Sonic Unleashed and one vote Other. So the order of the next three games will be:**

**Sonic Unleashed**

**My Special Suprise that I'm still not telling you about**

**Scourge the Hedgehog**

**I'm thinking that you all will like this chapter, as it finishes that Sonic and the Black Knight bit and also starts Sonic Unleashed. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"I think I know what happens from there," said Amy.<p>

"You wish," I grinned, "We got out of the castle as it collapsed. The sky was changing color, and the forces of nature were collapsing in on themselves. Once we were far enough, we all stared as a huge, grotesque, magic flower engulfed the castle grounds.

"'To think . . . that it had been all a trick!' said Gawain.

"'Camelot is finished,' Lancelot said dully. Percival was silent. I looked at them like they were crazy. 'Excuse me? You're just going to let this happen! Can't you do anything on your own, without orders from a king? We've got to stop her! For the kingdom, and it's people—not the king!' I said. Nimue appeared behind us.

"'There is still time! If we can create a barrier using the sacred swords, we can contain the destruction. These are the locations of the barrier stones that will aid you,' she told us. We each ran off to the places where the stones were: Lancelot, to the shrouded forest, Gawain to the great megalith, Percival to the volcano nicknamed 'the cauldron', and me to the dragon's lair. I didn't tell them, because I knew that they wouldn't like it, but I would try to get in and stop Merlina. After defeating the dragon—it oddly reminded me of the Biolizard—I jumped into the barrier and ran back to the castle. Nimue later told me that we had been too late in making the barrier, and that it hadn't been strong enough to hold back the dark magic. I found Merlina in the throne room. Vines twisted around the throne and columns, and a little light came through the stained glass windows. She looked different—like a dark queen, with markings, a gown, and dark hair.

"'I've been waiting for you, Sonic,' she said. 'I brought this kingdom to the Underworld, where it shall never cease. You have probably guessed that I never wanted an end to this . . . this perfect kingdom. What my grandfather did only provided a temporary paradise—for it was meant to end by the hand of Arthur's son Mordrid, or by the Knights of the Underworld. However . . . I shall open the Dark Hollow between worlds, and the kingdom, thrust into it, shall never perish,' she smiled, as if this was wonderful. 'But the people of the kingdom will live in havoc! It won't be a paradise anymore! No one will survive!' I shouted. She closed her eyes.

"'They will. No one will perish. Never again. _The world shall be an endless flower . . . with these words and with my power . . . nothing mortal will cease to be . . . all shall exist eternally . . . _Sonic, can't you see how beautiful an everlasting kingdom would be?' I shook my head.

"'Then you are doomed. Since you defy me . . .' She raised her hand high, and a huge, glowing figure rose from the throne, two swords raised. It looked almost like King Arthur, but more powerful.

"'I won't back down!' I shouted. 'Fool! Run! We cannot overpower her!' said Caliburn. 'That isn't the point. I have to find a way . . . to save them! It isn't about me!' I tried to block the next attack, but in doing so, Caliburn snapped in half. I couldn't believe it. He may have been annoying . . . but still . . . he had saved my life, I suppose. 'NO!' I shouted, and ran at her with my bare hands, the blade of the Dark Queen grinding against me . . . when Caliburn began to glow, fuse together again, and change. The whole room melted away into a black and red vortex—the Dark Hollow. Suddenly, I was wearing golden armor, and it felt like I was using the Chaos Emeralds as Caliburn proclaimed that he was Excalibur, reborn. Merlina rose, the center of the monstrosity she'd built, and we clashed.

"'Every world has its own end, Merlina!' 'Fool! Don't you comprehend how wonderful the kingdom would be, lasting longer than the Earth itself!' 'Do you honestly believe that a kingdom like that could function properly?' asked Excalibur. We took an opening an slashed right through—for Excalibur could cut through anything, and she screamed as the magic receded, and she lost. We stood in the ruins of the castle.

"'Merlina,' I said. 'I know that it's hard to let a world end . . . believe me, change is never easy. But with every end, starts a new beginning. I figure that we have endings so that we can learn to make the most of what we have, so we don't take it for granted. We should enjoy life while it's still around,' I offered her my hand, and she stood up. We turned to find Nimue and the Knights of the Round Table.

"'The Knights of the Round Table are no more . . . without a king . . .' said Gawain. 'Didn't I say it before, though? Isn't that ridiculous?' I asked. 'Remember, Gawain? Isn't there more to being a knight than serving a king? Isn't there more to life than just doing what you're told?' Nimue nodded. 'What he says is true. The Knights will live on. After all, Caliburn is Excalibur reborn . . .' And Caliburn spoke. 'Excalibur chooses who the true king is, so that would obviously mean one thing.' 'Could it be?' asked Percival. 'You?' said Lancelot and Gawain incredulously. As one, they said, 'You are the one and true King Arthur?' and knelt before me. I looked around at them like they were crazy. 'Wait, what? Cut that out!'"

"Right," snorted Damon, "Like I'd kneel before you," he said.

"It happened!" I argued.

"Yeah? How'd you get back then?" asked John.

"I told Merlina and Nimue that I needed to get home. Nimue promised that while I was gone, Lancelot would be in charge. She and Merlina then created a magic ring that could send me back home, and I could summon any one of them or even Caliburn if I ever needed them just by using the ring," I told them.

"Well, that was a nice story and all, but I'm tired. Good night," yawned Scarlet. We all finally fell asleep—by then it was a bit past midnight.

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><p>Amy turned in her sleep, right in between a dream and the waking world. Just as she was about to close her eyes, she saw something glinting as Eric put it in his pocket. A ring? No, it couldn't be . . .<p>

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><p>Well, in the morning, we all had waffles, bacon, and orange juice for breakfast. Then we went in the backyard and played a high-speed version of baseball. Finally, we all went home.<p>

In the weeks that followed, there were small crimes, like burglaries and such, that we took care of easily. Honestly, no big deal—after all, we'd just saved the world. In time, though, the holidays drew near: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and we started to spend more time with family for a while. When school started back up, we stuck together like glue. No one could really put us down for being dorks or anything, because we knew for a fact that most of them were our biggest fans, as they wore our t-shirts and merchandise.

But the easy times didn't last.

There were reports of a ship in space causing disturbances with satellites. At first, it was minor. Then, Eggman managed to broadcast again.

"Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen," he said during my fifth period class, his face the only thing I could see on the television screen.

"I would like to inform you that the ship that has been causing difficulties is my newest creation. Its power will affect everyone, so I suggest to a certain hedgehog that if you want to defeat what I have in store there, you'd better have some power behind you. I asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom, and met everyone in the hall.

"Okay, guys. I'll go up there, but I'll need all the Chaos Emeralds. Trust me when I say I've got this," I said, going into the hero mindset.

"Got it. See you when you get back—and be careful," said Amy. They all handed me the Emeralds, I turned into Sonic the Hedgehog, and Chaos Controlled to the ship.

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><p>I arrived at the ship in seconds. There were robots patrolling, but with the emeralds, I trashed them all. I came to the main control tower and looked around for the power source. A screen turned on.<p>

"Okay, how do you manage to keep the guards at the prison from taking whatever camera you have with you away?" I growled.

"I'm sneakier than I look, hedgehog. For example, how many of those games have you played?"

"All of them at least once. I have a bet with Knuckles that each of your 'triggers' follows one or two of the games . . . wait a second . . ." This room looked familiar from one of those games. Sonic Unlea—How stupid could I get?

Then a horrible thing—though I expected it in an instant—happened. An electrical field appeared around me, and violet streaks of static zoomed through me, making me drop the emeralds, searing me. I screamed. Hey, I'd like to see _you_ get struck by lightning and not scream, after all, that's probably what it felt like!

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" As Eggman laughed like the maniac he was. It felt like my skin was being torn to shreds, my nails being ripped out of my fingers and toes, and I was fairly sure my teeth were not supposed to be stabbing my lower lip all of a sudden. My arms and upper body burned like crazy, and I have no clue why I didn't consider bringing at least Damon with me on this one.

"I don't believe you'll be able to survive _this_ fall, Sonic. It's been nice knowing you—well, not really." And the second the pain stopped, the floor opened up below me and I was falling towards Earth. The last thing I saw was the Iblis insignia that he had described on the bottom of the ship.

* * *

><p>I woke up in a pile of dirt near a lighthouse. I looked around groggily, still slightly out of it, when I noticed a little dog in the dirt as well. It looked something like a Chihuahua.<p>

"Hey, little guy, you okay?" I asked, feeling a little stupid talking to a dog. It opened its eyes and yelped, squirming and trying to get away from me. _Duh. Werehog, remember?_ I reminded myself. _And this little pup is all alone . . . poor guy. I always liked dogs. _I decided, why not? Then I took him by the collar and carried him down to the edge of the water to sit for a bit. I looked down at the water and was vaguely shocked to see what I did. Sonic the Werehog wasn't so surprising, but I tried to turn into human Sonic next, and it was a little freaky to see.

My face had become pale as snow, and I was much taller and brawnier than before. The Speed Demon shirt was suddenly super tight and showed off muscles that I didn't remember having, and the sweatshirt sleeves were torn at the wrists. I could see the fangs, slightly sticking out over my lower lip, and my jeans, shoes, and gloves were torn from my growing. My hair had grown navy blue with white tips on some spikes. My eyes were still green, but the pupil had turned into a slit like a wolf. I finally decided to turn back into Eric, thinking at least that would be normal. But I was wrong.

I was recognizable at least, but I was pale like human Sonic, bulkier than normal but not quite as much as two seconds ago, my clothes felt tight, and my hair was messier. My teeth felt sharper, too. I looked up at the sky and sighed. I would never get a break, would I? Then the sun was no longer eclipsed, and I was back to normal in a flash of light like Chaos Transformation. I sighed in relief and began to walk towards town, the dog nipping at my heels. I got a chocolate chip ice cream and the dog started licking it.

"Hey buddy . . . I guess I'll call you Chip." It barked. Then I headed down the street to find Human Tails.

"Hey, Tails!" I shouted.

"Sonic! Hey! So what happened? Eggman said that his ship will block out the sun every hour . . . but why? Our parents have excused us from school until this ends. So what's up? What's with the dog?"

"I call it Chip. And you know what that means," I grimaced. He frowned.

"Don't tell me this means you'll turn into a Werehog every other hour," he said.

"I think so. Don't think we'll have to save Professor Pickle this time around though," I grinned, "Because we've already figured out where we need to go."

"Really?"

"The game, Tails, the game! Each continent had one temple—I'm sure I can figure each one out. Therefore, looks like I have to go around the world. Great chance to see the sights, at least," I said, sighing.

"I'll let the others know about this. Okay?"

"Got it. See ya, Tails!" He ran off towards what looked like a biplane—I guess his parents let him build it.

"Well, Chip, looks like we're going to start in Africa. That's how it started in the game at least. Let's see . . . well, I guess I'll have to carry you. Here we . . ." I picked him up, "GO!"

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><p><strong>For those of you that have played the game, was that last line funny? I don't know if it came out that way, but it just makes me think of how he started every day stage level . . . I started to say it with him after a while . . . oh well. Please check out my other stories if you get the chance. Sayonara!<strong>

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	14. 14: Light, Colors, and Shades of Green

**HI GUYS! I know it's been forever but it will probably be long before I update again. I have no idea. But I've got an extra-long chapter in my opinion and even better I have a poll going for this story on my profile! Check it out!**

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><p>It seemed that I was able to run across water very quickly, because in nearly no time, I found myself in a village. I ran through town, asked questions, and got absolutely nothing. Since the Chaos Emeralds were drained, there was only one thing to try: go to the sound of whirring machines and explosions in the northern end of the village. There were robots all over—I trashed them. I couldn't understand what the people were saying, but I smiled at them, waved, and ran off before Eggman could send more into the village.<p>

Then I got to the temple, put the Chaos Emerald into a pedestal, and Chip barked. It started to glow, and it became normal. I grinned at my luck and Chaos Controlled, Chip in tow, to Venice, which seemed similar enough to Spagonia. By then, night had fallen. I saw some of the dark monsters roaming the street—they looked even scarier in real life!

I realized then that Tails and Amy were in the middle of them, and that two of the monsters in particular were too close. I'd already turned into Were—human—Sonic, so I began to bash all of them. Then I asked the two if they were okay.

"Who are you?" asked Amy. Tails looked between me and her, and Chip.

"You don't recognize me?" I asked, huffing. Even my voice had changed. Tails looked at the dog.

"Hey, that's the dog that was with . . . oh!" he realized. Then Amy looked me over again.

"Wait! Sonic!" she said.

"Who else? Even my normal form is different. I wonder why it's just me, though. You guys have powers with the Chaos Emeralds, too. That confused me even in the game," I said.

"I always thought that the darkness came out of us in the form of the monsters, but with you, well, you were the one to be transformed in the first place . . . we saw how that worked, one way or another."

"But wouldn't a monster eventually appear, instead of my going Werehog?"

"They explained that though!" giggled Amy.

"How?" I asked. They rolled their eyes.

"Am I missing something?"

"Clueless, this one is," said Tails in a Yoda voice. I narrowed my eyes.

"Thanks, that's really great of you to let me know. Anyway, I'm going to search up the next temple." It was simple with each one: run to the temple, defeat the monster that guarded it, restore the Chaos Emeralds, and leave. I went to China, the South Pole, some place in Brazil, the center of the Australian outback, and so on. But I stopped in a city during the day once—New York—to find a shocking discovery. When I'd gone to the other temples, nothing too unusual happened. However, this time . . . Chip began to bark at the tablet behind us. Then he fell through it!

I ran to grab him, but he disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, he was back.

"Sonic," a voice, familiar from the games said in my head.

"Chip . . . you're Light Gaia, aren't you," I remembered.

"I sure am. Well . . . I guess this is goodbye, Sonic. Now that I know what my mission is, I'd better see it through," and Chip began to walk away.

"Wait a second here! We've been through this together so far, and no way am I going to let you do this alone. I guess it was you that kept me this way, huh? You were there," I said. It made sense. I didn't lose control or have a huge monster appear before me because Chip protected me. But he barked and shook his head.

"No, Sonic. Your heart is too strong to be taken by the darkness. It was you all along." I stared at him. Me? Strong? Well, that was something new. _But you've accomplished quite a bit, haven't you? After all this, don't you see how strong you are?_ Said a little voice in the back of my head that sounded like Tikal. _Shut up, _I replied,_ I still can't beat my brother in the London Olympics Party mode, even when I play as Sonic himself and he plays freaking Waluigi just to annoy me. _The voice seemed to laugh but didn't respond. I nodded to Chip.

"We're in this until the end, Chip. Let's go." We finished up the temples, and I set off to the coordinates Tails gave me—an abandoned theme park gone Eggman. I avoided a bunch of death traps and managed to find the generator that was attracting the Dark Gaia monsters that ransacked the park. Chip started to bark.

"Sonic! It's Eggman! And he's got a—and a—and a whole pack of robots!" Chip yelled from behind me. I smashed the small ones like nothing, chuckling to myself at the reminder of the game. A screen came on. Eggman.

"Ah, Sonic. I'm afraid that if you were planning to beat me, you were wrong." A gigantic robot-monster hybrid came in.

"That's it!" I shouted. I spindashed the joints of the robot, which were the weaker points. It started to fall apart.

"You blasted little—you little—" Eggman began to rant on the speakers.

"You little what?" I asked, grinning. I was much more able to joke when I wasn't the Werehog. I always felt . . . angrier . . . as that.

"YOU LITTLE!" I slammed the robot into the wall, effectively destroying it. Now that everything was back to normal on Earth, I walked leisurely outside. But then I felt the huge tremor.

"It—it's Dark Gaia!" shouted Chip, "Sonic, use the Chaos Emeralds! I'll help!" Before I could respond, glowing masses appeared out of nowhere, and I was going Super.

The monster was even more hideous than in the game—though that might have been because it was so _huge._ It was towering out of the lava that it had unearthed in breaking to the surface. Unnatural green eyes with slit pupils lined the top of its head, and huge, grey horns jutted out from either side. It had fangs that were as big as a grown man each, right below those eyes . . . a huge half-formed body towering out of the lava, with strange purple tentacles lashing around and whipping themselves randomly at what appeared to be nothing.

What seemed to be a giant stone Transformer made of the seven temples assembled itself next to me. Chip's voice echoed from it.

"I'll hold him back, Sonic! You need to seal the crack in the earth! That will hold him!"

"But you'll be sealed away, too!" I shouted, shocked.

"This is what I do every thousand years . . . I'll always be with you, Sonic, even when I'm fighting him. Dark Gaia is the night, but I'm the day. Just look at the sun, and I'm there—whether you notice or not," he said. I nodded, sniffing like a three year old kid losing his first pet, and spindashed the section of rock that would seal them in.

As the crack closed, I saw the sun break over the horizon.

Later, when I landed back on Earth, I found Chip's collar lying in the dirt.

_Sonic, if you ever need your Werehog strength to show just how strong you are inside… if you need me… I'm here._

I really did like hanging out with everyone—we had a good chance to do so on John's birthday, only weeks after the 'Unleashed' incident. It was spring break that week.

"Why is _everyone _from school showing up?" asked Amy nervously. The room for laser tag was getting _very_ full.

"My mom invited the entire class!" John hissed, "And no one wanted to miss out on laser tag. I'm going to murder whoever put that idea in her head!" The main reason was that Nick the Most Outrageous Jerk was there. He and John used to be buddies. Now? They glared at each other as much as Nick glared at me on a regular basis.

"Let's see what you've got!" Nick sneered at us. It was eventually divided into teams with different colored gear. Blue was John, Scarlet, me, Damon . . . everyone basically who was secretly awesome. _Did I just come up with that phrase? That's pretty cheesy… I really am becoming Sonic, hehe. _And the red team was Nick, a bunch of jocks, and a few of their girlfriends.

"COME AT ME BRO!" roared Nick once we got started. He was the first out. In fact, we dominated—however, something weird worried me. I was not athletic. I was not fast—at least, in normal form—but in the dark, where it was hard to see, it sure felt like I was running at top, sound-barrier-breaking, speed . . . was I going to wake up with blue hair and the inability to swim one day?

I tried to brush it off, and surprisingly, did. Normally I'd worry at least a while before putting something out of mind. In the back of my head though, I remembered with a shudder what I had joked to myself earlier: _I really AM becoming Sonic. _But it was much easier to focus on taunting Nick in a rematch, which we took our time on.

"Man, you're slow," I stage-whispered. He turned to take a shot at me, but I was already running, a few feet away.

"Idiot," he muttered.

"Nice try," Damon said smoothly, taking him down.

"Who cares? This is a stupid game anyway," said Nick loudly.

"Yeah," Jenna said as well, almost purring, "I heard about this new theme park though. I say we go there and ditch this place. It's downtown, close to the office building for Echo Inc. Who's with me?" The game was getting boring with no challenge… we went with them.

The park was nearly deserted. And it was strange. A few glaze-eyed employees manned the booths and games, and there were automatons on different kid rides. It was a sort of tropical theme. Sadly, there were no roller coasters—only a gigantic Ferris Wheel that loomed over the rest of the park. The metal gate closed behind us, and the giant circle of red that was the wall around the park was surrounding us now.

"Cool! Skee-ball!" shouted someone, and everyone rushed that way. I trailed behind with Miles.

"Doesn't this seem a little fishy to you? I haven't even heard about this place until now."

"I can't see anything sinister about it," he said, amused, "Except the horrible Jamaican accent the announcer guy is trying to pull off." I snickered, as he was right. The speakers spread out around the park announced special events—little contests or concerts—but it was an old guy who was definitely not from Jamaica.

"He'd be fine if he just talked normally. We get it. It's a Tropical Resort," I said irritated as we finally caught up with the group. Miles froze.

"Tropical Resort?" he said quietly.

"_And now, our special launching of the Tropical Resort Countdown. Ten—Nine…_"

"Guys! This place is a trap!" I shouted. Suddenly, from the red walls, glass was rising. The park seemed to be forming a gigantic snow globe in thirty seconds flat.

"_Six—Five—_" No one was listening except Amy, who shouted at the realization. The others just looked at us like we were crazy. Then they looked up and their jaws dropped.

"_Three—two—ONE!" _A roar rumbled and the ground shook. People were screaming. The employees of the park shook as well—until they were robots. **(Very small language warning because I'm paranoid. Skip the following line if you oppose it… I appear to be extremely paranoid)**

"SHIT!" shouted Nick, obviously.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP AND HIT THE DECK! YOU'RE NOT GONNNA LIKE IT IF YOU DON'T!" everyone did as they were ordered by John, and it was a good thing too, because otherwise they would have fallen anyway and hurt themselves as the snow globe of a park shot into space. There were still people screaming.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" They stopped. Soon enough, we were stopped, and at the five designated entrances of the park, sealed bridges stretched away to what appeared to be small planets. Strange ones, but still...

"What did I tell you, Miles?" I said.

"Whatever. How are we going to keep this from… them?" I pointed out to Miles.

"Uh, I don't know."

"Welcome to Eggman's Incredible Theme Park, where you can enjoy five planets for the price of one!" So that's why he'd used the accent… to make his voice unrecognizable. Now it was plain as day.

"Eggman? We're all going to die!" groaned Nick.

"Don't you understand what I've been saying? Here's a new wording for it: Silence is golden. Duct tape is silver." John pulled a roll of it out of his backpack that he'd brought. Nick stayed quiet.

"Miles and I will see if we can find a way back, okay? If I were you guys, I'd stay inside a building—avoid the Ferris Wheel though. Sonic'll probably end up coming over here anyway since this is all Eggman. If you find a trashed robot, pick up its weapon and use it to defend yourself. Only shoot at robots, nothing living. Got it?" I said to John loudly, so the others could hear as well.

"This is all my party still so I guess I'm calling the shots. Go ahead, Eric, Miles. I'll watch them." And I went around to the next building to change. Being a hedgehog would do for today.

"Kill all humans," one robot droned, "Kill all annoying hedgehogs," it continued. So they weren't going to be very picky today, huh?

"Tails, care to give me intel as I go?"

"Sounds like a plan. I'll stay at this platform and let you know about stuff as I see it. Put on this communicator and we'll be able to talk," he assured me, handing me what appeared to be a small headset.

"Ok. Here I go," I said, taking off down the street. I swung down alleys and avoided spikes on the way. The park was transforming from a resort to a death trap with rides. The automatons from certain rides now had red glowing eyes, and they too were shooting at me. I quite literally dodged multiple bullets. Then I saw a little floating alien thing just like from the games—a white wisp, I think it was called.

"Looks like Eggman is going along with the plan just as expected. Except I don't see—there he is." I ran past the wisp only to feel a burst of white hot energy go through me. With an extra burst of speed, I smashed right through some of the glass containers that were holding the aliens hostage. When I looked back, the aliens were waving behind me.

I kept running, and I managed to stop by an area where multiple containers of aliens were. Above it was a screen with Eggman's face on it.

"You're quite the idiot, Sonic. Leaving all of your friends alone was not the smartest plan." There was the gigantic monster Ferris Wheel. And everyone was on it.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap," I muttered, dashing towards the death trap with the help of some freed aliens.

Amy was screaming at the top of her lungs as the rickety cart swung back and forth from where it was. If I didn't stop it, they would all be dead fast.

A different colored alien was trapped at the base of the ride.

"Tails, anything on this one? Is this the laser wisp?"

"Yeah. Just be sure you're looking in the direction that you want to go with it when you go," he told me. I looked straight at the eye in the center as I smashed the pod that the cyan wisp was inside of. In no time at all, I was on the other side of the eye and the sound of screeching metal could be heard behind me. Though it could have been Jenna shouting. In either case, I basically bounced off the wall behind the machine and pushed the freefalling cart so that it landed on an angle in the sand.

"Everyone all right?" I asked, prying open one of the doors on the red death trap. I paid no attention to the explosions behind me as the monster wheel collapsed. There were a few scrapes and bruises, but everyone but Jenna got the worst of it: damaged eardrums.

"OH MY GOD!" she screeched. She was no worse off from the others, but she was pointing at me with a huge fangirl grin on her face.

"All right, look. Tails and I are here in the park, so we're going to try stopping whatever nefarious plot Eggman has going this time. It will be extremely hard for you all to keep up with the fastest hedgehog alive on foot, right? So why don't you guys stay with Tails. I already sent those other two kids down to Earth; I'm sure Tails can do the same. See if one of you can get a communicator from him so you're still in on the action. I'm going to see what I can do about these other planets I see," I told them before some of the cheerleaders became rabid.

"Sounds great! Where's Tails?" asked John, trying to pretend like we didn't know each other.

"He's a two-tailed yellow fox that can talk, make a calculator into an alien translator, and fly using his tails like a helicopter. If you can't find him, he's probably behind you," laughed Tails, flying in, "We're going to find the space elevator. As much as I'm sure you'd all love to hang out with us, we don't want you guys getting hurt—not everyone here has special powers, you know," he said, eyeing the reluctant teenagers.

"Could you get them out of here? I'm going to check out that candy planet first," I said, licking my lips. He chuckled.

"I always liked that one. It's like that room in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory except with deadly robots." With that, he went to send the other members of our little group to Earth.

It was exactly like the game. Thousands of miles of sugar and cake. It was heaven for a growing boy.

Except it was filled with deadly robots so I couldn't stop and eat.

Okay, so maybe the candy pirate robot thing was hard to destroy. But I did eventually smash his head in and destroyed his little bobble-head minions. I landed on an odd machine and broke it.

"This must be one of the generators. It's glowing and stuff, so why not? Everything else is matching up with the game." It powered down. Tails flew in.

"Awesome! Now can we eat?" he asked, staring at the cake platform next to us.

"Heck yeah!" I said, running and licking off some of the frosting. I spat it out immediately.

"It's fake! Why, cruel world?!" I said. My stomach was growling. Tails laughed.

"Let's go. Maybe there's a food stand at one of the other places." There wasn't anything at the Starlight Carnival or whatever it was called, but there was a lot of gravity problems. The Wisp powers were weird, I have to say. All that energy rushing around—and then BAM! I change into some other form. It was really crazy when I ran into the Nega Wisp—I was feeling sick enough after the sushi bar. I couldn't really control it, but just smashed through everything in sight. And then there was Planet Wisp. After I defeated what was the first Ferris Wheel's brother, Eggman made an announcement. Oh, one of the best lines in the game… I wasn't going to make a fool of myself talking to a dead robot! (**And now, the anthem of Sonic Fanfiction in my opinion, when Eggman is done…)**

"Please remember, all planets in Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park are, as far as you know, wholly owned properties of Eggman Enterprises and its subsidiaries. All unauthorized photography, video recording, or shutting down of generators is strictly prohibited. Thank you." Now let's see if I get the line right…

"Eggman! I _am_ going to save this planet, and I _am _going to free these aliens. No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!" I felt very proud of myself until Tails spoke.

"You know, he probably can't here you from here. Or respond."

"It's the principal of the thing!" I huffed. We headed toward the space elevator, with the thinking that it would be over if we blew up the main console.

"Not so fast!" I heard as we were about to head in.

"You have to defeat me first! I have enough alien energy to control all of the kids you planned on sending home. To beat me, you have to get through them first!" The screen on the robot showed his face. I stared at everyone standing at the door to the main console. They all had glazed, zombie-like looks on their faces.

"What do we do now? We can't hurt them," said Tails.

"Eggman, me against your Nega Egg Robot thing. If I win, you let us all go. If you win—well, you're not going to win," I said. He chuckled.

"Just you try." I raced him down what seemed like a long highway—but then I realized it was the red wall that had surrounded the theme park! I smashed at the arms of the robot first, and wisps tumbled out.

"Beat that!" I paused for a moment, remembering the nickname for Eggman in the game—"Baldy McNosehair!" It didn't sound as funny as I had hoped . . . oh well. I had freed the last wisp, and they all swirled around me.

"Let's go, guys!" and we smashed into the robot.

"I still have one trick up my sleeve, hedgehog! I can still release the Nega-energy—what? Error in the system! Blast! The entire island is going the explode. At least I get rid of you somehow. Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog." The robot crashed and skidded. Everyone seemed to wake up from their dazes.

"Seriously?! Tails! Get everyone into the elevator now!"

"Got it!" he replied on the speaker. "I'll wait for you!"

"No, get them to Earth now! I have to stop the planets from exploding!" Static on the headset. He'd better be getting back to Earth!

I headed toward the console room. All the screens were just blinking error messages, and alarms were sounding all over.

"Come on, come on," I muttered, looking at the control panel. A flash of light interrupted me, and I blacked out.

Apparently, the wisps carried me safely back to Earth and they teleported their own planet as well as the others back to where they belonged. That's what Miles told me. When we were all safely on the ground, I met up with them as Eric.

"Hey, guys!" I said. Nick glared at me.

"Dude, you're lucky Sonic sent you down right away. We all nearly died up there!"

"Hey, I would have died here too. The debris from the explosion—"

"I'm just glad Sonic saved us," squealed Jenna. I rolled my eyes.

"Now the only question is where I can get some food. I'm starving," I said. We finished our little celebration with chili dogs and ice cream. Not a bad day!

After that, school stuff got really busy. The homework piled on for some reason—I guess the teachers figured that they needed to catch up before the end of the year. I also didn't know why regular criminals thought I wouldn't bother with them because Eggman is my main villain. I can still beat up a robber without maiming him seriously.

Elaine looked at the kids that were becoming new regulars at Laura's. They must have moved from far away because she recognized most people around town or in the area. Since they were about her age, she assumed they would transfer to their school soon.

They had just appeared out of nowhere, it seemed. To be perfectly honest, no one knew where they lived. But the bandits—as well as the new students at school—seemed to be the talk of the town. The bandits never left a trace. Things just disappeared. As for the students, some were uneasy about these three, while others fawned over them the entire time. Elaine deduced many things about the new three.

First, there was Sam. He was most obviously from Australia, considering his accent and slang. He tended to dress as if he were going hiking or hunting in the woods every day. He had scars on his arms, which he attributed to a motorcycle or sometimes helicopter accident that people were not sure actually happened. His wispy, flat brown hair hung in his eyes, and one or two people who had been close enough to him noticed something metallic inside of his boots that was most definitely not safe.

Then, there was Emily. A Hispanic girl with hair dyed fiery red, she was marked a rebel from the start. Guys drooled over her because she wore as little as possible without getting in actual trouble, even though her favorite outfits of leather with multiple metal belts would have gotten most people thrown out of public establishments. The reason she didn't is because she was cunning—she always got what she wanted from people, and they would never know they'd been duped. Unfortunately, her love of pyromania and nice clothing occasionally broke down that façade for smarter people. Elaine had heard she damaged the chemistry lab at her old school one too many times, and that's why they moved.

Finally, their undefined leader: Ethan. He exuded confidence and ease. A lazy grin or smirk was usually plastered on his face—even to those who were of authority above him. He had sky blue eyes, longish black hair, and a healthy tan. He always wore sunglasses that tended to slip down his nose or lay on his forehead, depending on his mood. His leather jacket had a flame pattern lacing the bottom, and like any normal kid, jeans were his favorite kind of pants to wear. He didn't seem nearly as sinister as the other two but something about him still made people uneasy. Maybe it was his air of confidence that said, 'I'm obviously better'. Or perhaps it was the fact that he seemed to walk everywhere as if he owned the place and didn't really care about what other people thought. In some cases this would be considered good, but in Ethan, it was unsettling. But that didn't really make Elaine nervous.

She was more concerned about him looking exactly like Eric.

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><p><strong>I don't think I need to tell you guys who he is. And if you don't know, well... you're going to find out next chapter probably. I've been waiting to do this saga forever so it may or may not be updated soon. <strong>

**Seeya later guys!**


	15. 15: Scourge's Anarchist Paradise

**Yes! Finally! I get to start this story arc! YAAAAY! (sorry, this is my favorite so far besides the Sonic Adventure 2 one I did.) If you can, please check out my poll on my profile page. It involves this story and I really want input on it! Thank you everyone so far for the support! This was the first story I wrote (well, in my notebook when I finished it there) and I didn't think it would end up being very good. But I'm proud of this story especially for how it's turning out. You probably want to read it now though.**

**I do not own Sonic or any of it's characters. If I did, then Sonic '06 would have been given more time to develop and would have been more awesome. Which is why I'm combining what I think are its good qualities with the good qualities of another game for the final story arc in this-but I won't give any spoilers really. It's a long way away anyhow. **

**Read on!**

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><p>I sat down on the park bench and grinned.<p>

"It's a great day isn't it?" I asked Amy, who smiled too.

"Sure is. Nice weather, no Eggman for a while, and Nick and Jenna are on vacation for a week. Hey, did you meet the new kids at Laura's? Elaine's been telling me about them."

"Yeah, she invited them over to the park today with everyone else." Amy shrugged as she said, "I don't know why but she seemed nervous about it." Everyone except the three she'd told us about had come on time—we were wondering if they skipped out on us when two guys and a girl came over.

"Ethan! Emily! Sam! Glad you could make it. This is Miles, Amy, John, Scarlet, Eliza, Damon, Jason, Nellie . . . and Eric." I stood up to say hi, wondering why she'd paused at my name. There was a small collective gasp. The guy standing in the middle was like a mirror image of me, but with different clothes and blue eyes. Both of us blinked and scratched our heads at the same time.

"Well, this is freaky," we both said, and his voice was a copy of mine too!

"Dude, you sure _I'm_ your twin?" joked Jason. Then the guy chuckled.

"I'm Ethan. Ethan McArthur," he said, holding out his hand and smirking.

"And I'm Eric, Eric Sarali." Then the other two introduced themselves as Emily and Sam.

"So, you guys are a band?" started Elaine to strike up conversation. Ethan nodded.

"Yeah. Anarchist Paradise." **(I made the name up… if this is an actual band… ignore that fact!)**

"That's cool. Damon's an awesome singer," I said.

"Don't forget yourself, Sarali. I don't come close to what you've got," he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… sure, whatever you say. Anyway, what are you guys planning as far as school goes?"

"We're homeschooled by our foster dad," said Emily automatically.

"Ah . . . lucky you. I hear homeschooling is half as long as regular school each day," said John with envy.

"Yeah, it's still a drag, though." Sam looked antsy.

"Hey, hear about those bandits lately?" asked Scarlet, looking up from her phone. Emily tilted her head.

"Bandits?" she asked. Her voice sounded odd, like she was choking. But she looked fine.

"Yeah. Security cameras only catch little silhouettes of them and sometimes a weird blur. But they always grab stuff that teens want, which is what throws most authorities off. What kind of person can get into stores without getting detected and then only goes for things like video games, clothes, and cash?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog and his buds could pull it off, but . . . you don't think Metal Sonic is involved, do you?" asked Jason.

"Nah, Metal was alone. It's more than one bandit, right?" said Miles.

"You guys are regular detectives when it comes to Sonic stuff," said Sam, peering at us like we were in a murder mystery novel and possessed knives.

"Kinda, I guess. I'm a pretty big Sonic fan, so sue me," I shrugged.

"Hey, me too!" said Ethan, "even if Sonic can get a little annoying and cheesy." Questioning his sanity, I stretched and got up.

"Sonic's the fastest thing alive, he saves people, and he doesn't ask for anything in return. What's wrong with that?"

"He'll always do the right thing, so he won't succeed very much. At one point or another he'll have to make a choice and when he chooses what's right he'll lose. He's not willing to risk that, and that's his weakness," Ethan explained. I didn't like his reasoning—the whole point of Sonic was to do the right thing—but I didn't argue.

"Well, we're going to perform at Laura's tomorrow night. Want to come see us?" asked Emily.

"Sure! . . . I don't know if I'll be able to come, though," I said. I then talked with Elaine in private for a minute to set up something pretty cool—if I could pull it off, Ethan and his band would get a surprise tomorrow night. We hung out for a while and even played a little soccer, but eventually we all had to go. That is, until I heard police sirens. I turned into Sonic the Hedgehog and asked the officer where they were headed.

"The mall—those weird bandit robbers are back."

"What store was robbed first?"

"They're apparently on a shopping spree. They started at GameStop and are going through the whole building from what reports say."

"Thanks, I'll be there in a second." I rushed as fast as my legs could carry me and followed the green blur that was terrorizing the stores. Shockingly it was at my speed. My mind searched for options—Jet? Vector on a bad case?—but I was practically sick because I knew the answer. I caught up with the green hedgehog as fast as I could.

"Hey, Scourge!" I shouted. The hedgehog stopped in his tracks and turned. Yep. He looked just like me, but with blue eyes, green spikes, and a different outfit.

"Last time I checked, you didn't work here, so unless you got a new job, stop taking inventory," I said. He laughed—it was so creepy, because it sounded just like my laugh.

"Good one, but you're outmatched. Fang! Fiona!" A red fox in a black jumpsuit and a purple one with guns in holsters leapt in.

"Oh, great. Just when I was worried this would be easy," I said. Odd, I didn't think it would be easy at all, but if it got them even a little nervous, I could handle it. Shoppers and employees alike were running away from us—we'd met at the center of the mall where all the plants and benches were.

"Idiot," spat Fiona. Then they charged me, and I regretted saying what I had. I needed a communicator or something to contact the others . . .

"HANDS OFF MY BOYFRIEND!" shrieked a voice from my right. I sighed in relief as one attacker—Fiona—dealt with the pink demon that was an angry Amy Rose. It was difficult to dodge bullets and still keep track of Scourge though—he was mirroring my every move at every turn.

"Hey, Fang!" shouted another familiar voice that relieved me, "Take this!" and Knuckles was at it with him. Fang couldn't really shoot when his attacker was right in his face. Amy was doing fine with Fiona too—her hammer was helpful against the ninja staff Fiona seemed to be using. As for Scourge and I—now that he didn't have backup and was tiring out, I was winning.

"Damn you," he muttered, punching me in the gut suddenly. But I had been aiming for him there too, so we both got the same impact.

"Hehe, that's all?" I coughed out. He had knocked the wind out of me. He smirked and nodded.

"For today. See you later, Sonic," and was a blur again, picking up Fiona and Fang on the way. That's when the police arrived.

"Sir, I'm telling you, we would have beat him if everyone had been there," I tried to assure the Chief of police as the yellow tape went up.

"Maybe so, but the fact is that everyone _wasn't_ there. And I can't have kids risking their lives to fight other dangerous kids," he said, frowning.

"I'm not just a kid. For all you know, I'm your age." He raised an eyebrow to silently ask, '_Really?'_. I shrugged.

"Eh, it was worth a shot. I know I pretty much act my age. I know I'm probably not the best person for the job. But I can't just sit around when I can help. My parents raised me right." He seemed amused by this kind of excuse.

"I suppose so. And the world can be grateful to you and your friends for what they've done. But even heroes need help sometimes. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask." I paused. There was something that had been bugging me besides the communicator thing—Tails could whip it up like nothing if he had a place and the parts to build machines.

"There is something . . . Tails is a genius, don't get me wrong, but he's kind of helpless in a fight. I was wondering if there could be a place where he could work and maybe some scrap metal to start him off on some projects? So far there isn't much for him to help with." The chief smiled.

"I can arrange for that. Any particular location?"

"Preferably near Washington High. Or by Lakewood Street. He kind of lives in that general vicinity, so . . ."

"I see. Stop by my office sometime next week and I'll have something set up."

"Thanks, sir!" I nodded and ran back.

The next day I prepared for the concert. Elaine had told me what song I could come in on—frankly, it was one of my favorites from the Sonic series. I put on a blue t-shirt and some black sweats. Before leaving I checked my hair in the mirror. Still messy and somewhat spiky, but still black, not blue.

Elaine led me to the back of the stage and told me where to stand out of the light.

"You sure you can do this? He might just stop in the middle of the song," she chuckled.

"I'm sure; it'll be cool. Hey, did you hear about the bandits? It's Scourge, Fiona, and Fang," I told her. Her brow furrowed and she looked around the empty restaurant before talking again.

"I was there in one of the stores; I recorded most of the fight. Eric, I think the band you're about to sing with is actually the robbers, too. Ethan looks so much like you it's not funny. I'm pretty sure Sam hides guns in his boots. And Emily . . . well she acts a lot like Fiona, okay?" this sent a chill down my spine.

"Um . . . well, I don't want to confront them about it. They'll just figure out I'm Sonic."

"Not if it's me who does it. I'm not technically—"

"I can't let you do that. Scourge is dangerous. If Ethan is him . . . well, we'll be on guard, but we'll wait for them to slip up. Let the others know about this, okay? Oh, and tell Miles I might have gotten a workshop set up for him. Then he can start making gadgets all he wants." She smiled.

"Okay, sure thing. Have fun." She then went to turn off the lights, then turn on the spotlights that would light up only Ethan's band. After that, she turned on the neons in the restaurant that let people see their food. Some people shuffled in—including Ethan, Emily, and Sam, who were carrying in instruments and amps. Amy led our group in, looking for me and then seeming disappointed. Anarchist Paradise set up without even knowing I was right next to Ethan.

"Hello, ladies and gents!" said Ethan, "and is Eric out there, guys? Could he come?" he asked the table with all of my friends. When they shook their heads honestly (they didn't know I was here. Only Elaine did.), he looked disappointed. I was trying to hide my snicker, as I was standing right next to him in the dark, while the spotlight was only on him and his band. The restaurant was otherwise pitch-black. Elaine was going to turn the light on for me when my line in a certain song came on—not that Ethan knew anything about this.

Emily was going first, with some song that oddly gave me the chills in the bad way. She was good, don't get me wrong, but she . . . well . . . she reminded me of Poison Ivy from Batman and Robin. It made me want to avert my eyes, like I wasn't supposed to be watching this. I don't remember much of it but the chorus:

"**Tell me what ya got to break down the walls—you just might need dynamite! Tell me whatcha got to break down the walls—kick senseless my defenses. Tell me whatcha gonna do, I need you to light the fuse, so tell me whatcha got to break down the walls. Ya just might need dynamite!**"

I vaguely wondered as I stood there and waited if Emily liked messing with bombs and if I should be worried. Then Ethan grinned and took the main microphone.

"All right then, here's my favorite one. Emily's going to take my guitar, and I'm going to sing. Don't plug your ears, I won't shatter your eardrums . . . maybe . . . and here we go, singing Live and Learn, originally by Crush 40." **(A/N: bold will be both of them, underlined will be Ethan, and italics will be Eric. Normal will be what's happening.)**

The music started, and Elaine timed it just right so that the spotlight on me turned on just when I started singing the first line. The look on his face was priceless, but he quickly got his act together, looking extremely full of himself, and it was like we had rehearsed it for months.

…_Can you feel life tangle you up in side?_

Yeah! Now you're face-down on the floor! O-o-oo-whoa!

_But you can save your sorrow, you paid in trade!_

When you can't help but follow! It puts you right back where you came!

We walked up to each other and made gestures like we were explaining two different sides of a story.

**Live and Learn! **Hanging on the edge of tomorrow!

**Live and Learn!**_ From the words of yesterday! _

**Live and Learn!** If you beg or if you borrow!

**Live and Learn! **_You may never find your way! _

We pointed up at the ceiling, and at each other, and exchanged fake punches. There was even a small flip involved.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, _oh yeah!_ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

_There's a face searchin' far, so far and wide,_

there's a place where you dream, you'll never find.

Hold on to one and—_hold on to one and! _

We each turned to have our backs to one another and stepped farther and farther away with each line, then, as the chorus started again, we turned to face the audience and addressed them.

**Live and Learn! **Hanging on the edge of tomorrow!

**Live and Learn!**_ From the words of yesterday! _

**Live and Learn!** If you beg or if you borrow!

**Live and Learn! **_You may never find your way!... _

With the last note of the guitar, we stood in a pose with his fist an inch from my face and mine pulled back to hit.

The applause was the equivalent of a large robot of Eggman's exploding. And I know what that sounds like.

The entire time, we'd been sort of dancing like we were taking shots at each other, and he'd give me this sort of angry smirk, like we were actually fighting and he was sure I was going down. I don't know what my face was like, but I was thinking along the lines of the lyrics that I sang. I really, really liked this song. But that expression on his face began to seal the fear that he was probably Scourge.

Elaine was grinning from ear to ear when the lights came up.

"You guys were amazing!" she said. A few people came up to me and asked how long I'd rehearsed with him. They didn't seem to believe me when I told them I got on that stage without them knowing.

Elaine went up to the mic and said: "Well, that concludes our performances for the night. Enjoy your meals and don't forget to tip the waitress!" she then turned to Ethan and I.

"I'm going to make a music video of that tonight and use some of the footage of Sonic and Scourge's fight from today in it. Is that okay with you guys?"

"Um . . . why them?" Elaine shrugged at Ethan's question.

"It's a song from a Sonic game, and that's a recent event people can connect it to. Plus I could see Sonic and Scourge singing that the way you two did. Or Sonic and any of his rivals, I guess." Ethan had a weird, twisted expression for a few moments before relaxing into a smile.

"Sure, why not?" I sighed.

"Yeah, it'll be cool. Just make sure there's a disclaimer that you didn't call Sonic up and get him to drag Scourge in to sing this for your own nefarious purposes," I said, chuckling. Elaine rolled her eyes.

"Trust me. No one will think you guys lip synched and that I had managed to tie up the two hedgehogs to sing this," she replied. Ethan laughed.

"Nah, but they might think Eric and I _are_ Sonic and Scourge by how epic we are." I tried not to react too much as I forced up a chuckle. Because that's what I was almost positive of—Sonic and Scourge had just sung a duet together, and if I didn't figure out how to stop Scourge without revealing myself to him or without getting anyone hurt, people wouldn't just think we were Sonic and Scourge. They would know.

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><p><strong>Good? Bad? Want to beat me with a stick for ruining it? Let me know in a review! (But please, be honest. Don't just say you want to beat me up. I would really prefer constructive criticism or even just an 'I didn't like it' if this is the case.) <strong>

**Sorry for taking so long! Life's been crazy . . . and ideas for other stories keep popping up . . . I'm going to try and finish some of my shorter ones but I will do my best on this. Helping with freshman band camp and art camp prevented me from writing and gave me a sunburn. hopefully weekly practices and lessons will be a little less crazy. **

**Does anyone want anything put on my profile, like a favorite thing I missed? Send me a private message, not a review about that. Just came to me so I decided I'd put it here. You, my readers, are awesome for putting up with my scarce updates. Thanks!**

**Flute Chick**


	16. 16: To Shop and to Eat

**Ta-daa! Okay, so I finally got this chapter up . . . it's a transition chapter kind of, so it's a bit shorter, but next chapter is the dance!**

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><p>"Hey Eric," said Miles excitedly as he ran up to me on our way to school. The chief of police had fulfilled his promise and my little buddy now had a workshop of his own.<p>

"Did you figure out the communicators?" I asked.

"Yeah! Just in case we're all in public places but a problem happens, I made these wristbands so that if you press this white button on it, the others will vibrate slightly to warn everyone that something's going on. Then they work like long-distance walkie-talkies. You press the green button to talk and the black button to listen. And they look like just regular rubber wristbands from sporting events or whatever. I put words on everyone's so that it looked normal." I took the one he offered and looked at it. On the inside of the wristband, three small buttons were visible. On the outside, it was blue with the white text: Speed Demon. I chuckled as he showed me his: a golden yellow one that said 'wiz kid' in zigzag font.

"Nice—are they all like that?" I questioned.

"Yep!" he grinned.

"It's really cool, Miles. How'd you get them to look all normal?"

"I managed to use some fibrous alloys that conduct—well, basically, I made stretchy wires," he said with a knowing smile. Obviously I wouldn't be able to understand exactly what he did with it, so I smiled back thankfully for the dumbing down.

"Awesome, dude." Amy caught up with us as well. Jason had already gone to school this morning, meeting up with a partner for a project in his technology class. He went to school early a lot—the teachers probably had him come in to see if he was caught up with the rest of the class. I knew better—Jason was smarter than me, and I was passing okay.

"Check it out Amy—Miles made communicators for everyone!" I grinned, showing her mine. Miles explained again how they worked and handed hers over—it said Rose on it in white, curly script over a light pink background.

"It's so cool. Are you giving everyone something like this?" Amy asked, marveling at it.

"Yeah! It'll be way easier to work with . . . I also made a little something for myself back in the workshop too." He only grinned, refusing to tell us what it was.

The school day was boring as heck minus the announcement for the Spring Fling dance. Don't get me wrong, the last dance with Amy was great, but we hadn't really talked about what was going to happen between us. I didn't know if I should ask her again or not.

After school we got to hang out more in the park with Ethan, Emily, and Sam. The three of them stopped us just outside of school and we all went to the picnic benches at the park.

"Yeah, so apparently we can invite anyone we want to the dance," Scarlet explained.

"It's not restricted to just students? In that case, come with me to the dance, sweetie," Emily smiled, hugging Sam. He stiffened for a second, then nodded.

"Hey, Amy, is your cousin Nellie still in town?" Miles asked nervously. Amy grinned.

"She sure is. Why don't you stop by her house with me on the way home? I have to babysit her tonight and you're one of her best friends." He nodded vigorously. I grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"In that case, do you have anything you want to ask me, John?" purred Scarlet. Of course, John, clueless as ever, answered stupidly:

"Huh?" Scarlet huffed.

"Well, I guess you don't want to go to the dance with me then," she said, turning red.

"I assumed we were going together. I mean you _are_ my girlfriend," he said. Scarlet smirked.

"Watch it next time, buddy, or that might not be the case," and she kissed him on the cheek, to which he turned as red as his echidna form.

"Y-yeah." He sighed.

"Will you go with me to the dance, Eliza?" Jason asked suddenly. She nodded, a small blush forming on her cheeks.

"I already asked, so you guys know. I'm going with Elaine," Damon said. It was clear that the only ones without a date so far were Ethan, Amy, and I.

"Well? Eric?" Amy asked. I felt my face get hot.

"Uh, erm . . . excuse me for a minute . . ." and I took off running.

"ERIC SARALI YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!" she shouted, and I heard peals of laughter from our friends. I looked back to find her chasing me. When we were out of sight of the others—in this case, behind a tree—I stopped, scratching the back of my head as I tried to think of what to say to her. _Crap, that wasn't a good idea._

"Eric, why would you run away like that?" she asked, lips pursed.

"I didn't think . . . well, first of all, I didn't think, period. Second, I don't feel like it would be all that special asking just like everyone else was all of a sudden. . ." I hoped that would be enough for her—I wasn't going to lie, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings either.

"Well, I know for a fact," Amy said, "that if it's _you_ asking, it's special to me." I felt my face grow hot. She smiled at my embarrassment amusedly-I was a little annoyed with that, but I kept going.

"Amy, I asked you to the last dance but I didn't really know what happened after. Things are so crazy and we don't get to hang out a lot . . ."

"That's why I want to be together with the time we have," she smiled.

"Then will you be my girlfriend?" She gasped and tackled me, kissing me so fast even I was lightheaded. I grinned stupidly—I'll admit that.

"Let's head back," Amy said, taking my hand and pulling me back to where everyone was.

"We're going to the dance together," she confirmed. Light cheering erupted from our friends.

"Awesome!" grinned Ethan. "Now I just need to get a date . . . it doesn't have to be someone I know. I can afford to make new friends in town . . . anyone have a sister I can ask?" Damon looked uneasy as he nodded.

"She's a little younger, but yeah. Her name's Maria." Ethan grinned.

"Don't worry, Damon, if I ask her I'll take care of her. Mind if I do, though?" Damon frowned, but shrugged.

"Fine. Just . . . she's my little sister so don't do anything funny," he said quickly, turning a little red as he did. Ethan laughed.

"Aw, come on, I wasn't even thinking of it. And I won't. I haven't even asked her yet, okay?" Damon shrugged.

"Okay then. Hey, we should all go shopping together!" smiled Scarlet. The girls seemed to then go on . . . and on . . . and on . . . about dresses, shoes, makeup styles, and otherwise girl topics.

"Hey Elaine, how's the video coming for us?" said Ethan, annoyed.

"Fine. Just cleaning up the editing so that it looks more professional," she said over her shoulder before returning to the conversation. I looked over at Damon and he shrugged. I'd never get the appeal of shopping.

"Girls." It was our only explanation.

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><p>"Hey, what do you think of this one?" Amy said, holding up a pink sparkly dress with a huge bow on it in front of her. Elaine made a face.<p>

"No, the bow is obnoxious. The color is good though," she nodded. Scarlet and Emily were in another section, arguing.

"Sparkles are so in right now," Emily complained. "They're more showy."

"But it's gaudy," countered Scarlet, "Do you want to look like some sort of kindergartener's art project? Besides, the ones from that company are too expensive for what they're made of." Emily glared at her and proceeded through the glittery dresses. Scoffing, the redhead turned her back on the girl and looked in the section of long evening gowns.

"What do you think, Maria?" asked Eliza, handing her one that resembled Maria Robotnik's.

"I like it. Try this one on, and I'll try it," smiled the eighth grader, giving Eliza a lavender taffeta one.

"I got a call from Eric," giggled Amy. The others stopped what they were doing and leaned closer to listen in. She answered, putting her cell phone on speaker.

"Hey Amy, it's me," said his voice from the phone.

"Hi Eric. What's up?"

"We're all just at John's house playing video games. I'm just curious when you'll get back . . . we're all kinda hungry buy we don't want to make his mom cook dinner twice."

"We'll get there when we get there. Your stomachs are like bottomless pits-you can handle a couple more hours. Besides, you know you can't come here. We want you to be surprised at the dance," she chided before saying goodbye to the still complaining Eric.

"Food: the number one thing on a guy's mind," grinned Elaine amusedly. Amy rolled her eyes.

"Boys."

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><p>"They're not coming back for a while," I sighed. So we continued our previous conversation whilst doing Sonic Colors Multiplayer.<p>

"I swear, Comic Con is so close this year! We should totally go!" said Jason. I shook my head.

"Are you kidding? What would we all go as? You know the girls would make everyone dress up."

"All I can say is I refuse to dress as Pikachu or any sort of Pokémon," Miles confirmed.

"Some people do anime. But I won't do anything creepy," said Damon, shivering. Then I had an idea.

"Dragon Ball Z anyone?" I said. Jason laughed.

"It's perfect! They match up pretty well . . . I'm Trunks," he grinned, satisfied.

"That makes me your father, Jason," Damon pointed out, "as Vegeta and Shadow are fairly similar, too." He smirked slightly and I grinned.

"Then I'm Goku! And John can be Piccolo, and Miles can be Goten or Krillin. . . what do you think?"

"Goten, for sure," said Miles. (**Insert Shameless Plugin: I am also doing a DBZ fic at the moment for any of you who are interested. :) End Shameless** **Plugin**)

The doorbell rang. We could hear light laughter from the other side.

"FINALLY! FOOD!" shouted John, and we all rushed to greet the girls and bring them to the dinner table. They each had a large plastic bag with them, which they set in the living room.

John's mom fed us and we headed out.

"What about you, Ethan? Sam?" Ethan said he would probably be Raditz or Bardock, and Sam said probably Android 17.

_It fits,_ something in the back of my mind told me.

* * *

><p>I adjusted the blue tie for about the fiftieth time. All of the others were there-Amy and the girls would meet us at the door.<p>

"Let's dance, Sarali," grinned Ethan as he pulled up in a car. Apparently he recently got his license, and though I was uneasy about all the people piling in, we headed towards the school. I could tell he was pushing the speed limit but didn't say anything because I probably would have if I could drive. He parked with no problem and we all got out.

_Let's dance, Scourge._

* * *

><p><strong>I suppose I should mention the story arcs I have planned so far. I am not including Secret Rings or Sonic Adventure. I'm sorry to those who might have wanted these on here, but I simply can't include them. <strong>**However I am definitely including Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic '06, Sonic Generations, The Dark Brotherhood, and maybe Sonic Heroes and Sonic Riders. **

**I will try my best to post often, but school is going to start up soon. I am not kidding when I say that none of my stories at this point in time are pre-written. All of the stuff I have posted is everything I've written. I'm not very good at looking over my work for mistakes, so I apologize to my fellow people who get annoyed by bad spelling and grammar in fics like this. I do too, even in some of my favorite stories. **

**Yes, I shall include the actual comic con that they go to. It was not solely for the shameless plugin-I hadn't written my DBZ fic when I started to think of introducing that idea. **

**Comments, criticisms, and ideas are very much appreciated. Thank you so much for making this one of my best stories- You readers are awesome!**

**See you later!**

**Flute Chick**


	17. 17: Light the Match

**Took a long time, didn't it? Well, I hope you guys enjoy! I apologize for taking so long. It's going to be like this for a while, I'm afraid. But I worked really hard on this chapter, so hopefully it turned out like I'd wanted! **

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><p>Well, I had to hand it to the girls. They looked very different for only being at Scarlet's house for four hours. I caught sight of Amy first, in a knee-length pink sparkly dress. It had no sleeves. Her eyes sparkled in the dim lighting of the school.<p>

"Hey, sweetheart," she smiled, taking my hand. And we lost the others in the crowd of dancers.

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><p>Miles blushed and stammered out that Nellie looked pretty. She giggled and thanked him—she was just in a yellow polka-dot dress with pleats in the skirt, but she was young, as was Miles. It really was cute, seeing them dance at arm's length.<p>

Scarlet, wearing a slim silk black dress with ruffles at the bottom of the skirt, motioned for John to come with her.

"Come on, honey," she smirked, and he turned red as she pulled him into the gym. Eliza hadn't been so comfortable. She was in a purple dress, almost white, that had a silver sparkling ribbon tied around her waist. She adjusted it constantly, until Jason put a hand on hers.

"It's fine. You're beautiful." And they went in together.

Damon and Elaine did not throw themselves into the crowd, but danced off to the side. Elaine wore a silver dress that shined near white at the top, but darker and duller at the bottom. When Damon twirled her out on a whim, the skirt swirled and shined. It was like a fairy tale couple-and then they shared a kiss, sealing the image of a prince and princess into any bystanders' brains.

Emily immediately started dancing with Sam, moving in ways that drew the eyes of more than one guy. Sam put his arms around her possessively.

"Hi Ethan. I'm Maria," said the blonde, wearing a straight, plain blue dress with a white cardigan and a blue bow in her hair. He lost his smirk for a second and smiled honestly.

"Hey, Maria." He opened the door for her and led her in. She thanked him, and he nearly tripped over his own feet following. It wasn't until he caught Sam's eye that he remembered the plan, and almost ran out right there. _You idiot, how could you forget? Keep it together._

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><p>I was having the time of my life, being with Amy. It wasn't until we went to get some water in the cafeteria to the side that I realized there was a problem. The teachers were gone. The door to the cafeteria was locked.<p>

"We've got a problem," I muttered to Amy.

"You think it might be-"

"Hello, ladies and gents," said a voice in place of the music. "Here's Anarchist Paradise with Seven Rings in Hand!" And the lights turned on Ethan and his band. I saw Maria there too, with a bass guitar next to Emily. I guessed that Ethan had pulled some strings with Emily and Sam, because they didn't seem too happy about it. As the song progressed, Amy and I looked for the others—we had to have a plan when things went wrong.

Oh, did they go wrong.

* * *

><p>Ethan grinned easily at the crowd again and began to sing.<p>

"_Make Believes Reborn—Myths in mind, re-thought—Question all that's known—Legends blurred and torn!"_ Everything he'd ever known as a kid burned in the back of his mind now. His ideas about how the world worked had been shattered so long ago he usually didn't look back on it.

"_No such thing as fate for those who speed—A path out of time, instead of just living it—So many things erased before they begin—Hopes un-dream, instead of what could have been…"_ He knew better now. There were no heroes, no good guys. Either you got what you wanted or you didn't. He had been the normal little kid, playing with his older brother like always. His older brother was his hero.

"_Fortune fades, like words in the sand—Just like that, it's nothing, it all just seems—Nothing, it all just seems_," Yeah, everything was built on sand. Nothing was permanent. His brother, his hero, taught him that. There had been a big age gap between them—Ethan was six when his brother, Matt, was fifteen. But Matt was cool with hanging out with Ethan, and that's why it was so great to have him.

That's what destroyed Ethan's world, because that's only what it seemed to be.

"_Fortune Shines, with seven in hand—Back to fact, make real of all that seems—Make real of all that seems…"_ So Ethan had to take what wasn't real anymore and do things his own way. After all, Matt had been cool, easygoing, devil-may-care . . . so that's what Ethan was now.

"_Seven Rings In Hand—Speed through Nights with feet in sand—Seven Rings In Hand—Wonders all under command—"_ Now Ethan was the one in charge. He held the fate of every person in the room. The stage was set for it all. He looked over at Maria. Yeah, her life was in his hands too . . . He was in control.

"_Seven Rings In Hand—Wild with just one single hand—Seven Rings In Hand—Arrowed Hearts catch fire now!"_ That burning blaze that had taken his home, his family, set fire to his heart as well. He had been a well-behaved child, but as soon as he stood in the sand-like ashes, letting them fall through his fingers . . . well, he was labelled as a rebel with everyone he met. So now the plan set in. Get the seven emeralds all for himself and get everything and anything he wanted.

"_Make Believe's Reborn—Myths, in mind, re-thought—Question all that's known—Legends blurred and torn_!" Every bedtime story with Robin Hood or some other self-justifying hero that Matt had read . . . well, none of that was real. But he could twist and make it his own way.

"_No such thing as an arrow through who dreams—Hopes may burden, but forever, last to give in—So many things need a push or pull to begin—Un-free to move unless another hand gets in…" _It was all set in motion by a little spark. Pain didn't come to a dreamer like Ethan—oh, he just pushed the pain to others. Then he made his dreams—his brothers' stories—real.

"_Be it all the same, it's never the same—Just like that, just nothing, it all just means—Nothing, it all just means," _What did it mean, a little voice asked in his mind. All this. He was becoming his brother, even though this was nothing like it…

"_If all as is, it's never as is—Back to fact, make real of all that seems—Make real of all that seems…" _Ethan was taking what he wanted, and pushing others out of the way. This was just a distraction, so Fang's bots could tie up the teachers.

"_Seven Rings In Hand—Speed through Nights with feet in sand—Seven Rings in hand—wonders all under command!"_ He had the power to destroy and recreate everything—his brother couldn't have done that.

"_Seven Rings In Hand—wild with just one single hand!—seven Rings In Hand—arrowed Hearts catch fire now!" _Fire . . . He had barely escaped the flame. Ethan remembered that heat licking at his heels, hoping he'd be fast enough to get away. Matt had a simple whim, and set Ethan's world on fire. His pain was now the fire that made him who he was.

"_Memories that dance! Fairy Tales in Trance! Know What to believe! Nothing's up to chance!"_ Memories washed before his eyes . . . not old, but new ones . . . dancing with Maria—no, that was just the fairy tale he'd never have. He couldn't make that real, and there was no luck to do that for him.

"_Make Believe's Reborn! Myths, in mind, re-thought! Question all that's known! Legends blurred and torn!" _Turns out, all he believed as a kid was a lie. Matt got out of the fire, but he never looked Ethan in the eye.

He was no hero. He wasn't kind. He was a monster, because he led Ethan on and then tore up his home and his family. Everything Ethan had known. And then Matt disappeared, just like that.

"_Seven Rings In Hand—Speed through Nights with feet in sand—Seven Rings in hand—wonders all under command!"_ Even though people tried to slow him down, he couldn't be stopped. Not even Sonic could stop him now.

"_Seven Rings In Hand—wild with just one single hand!—seven Rings In Hand—arrowed Hearts catch fire now!" _One choice was left to him. Attack or move on. This was his chance. People always said he reminded them of Matt when he was that age . . .

"_Seven Rings In Hand—Nights with feet in sand—Seven Rings In Hand—Seven Rings In Hand!" _So that would be it. The seven emeralds would be his.

"_Make Believes Reborn—Myths in mind, re-thought—Question all that's known—Legends blurred and torn!" _Sonic, the hero, would be nothing compared to Scourge, the king. His legend would fade away like it never existed, but Scourge would live on.

"_Seven Seas in Hand! Speed of Sound through sands! All our hopes and plans! In one Single Hand!"_ His choice, his chance . . . his match to light . . .

* * *

><p>The applause died down, and Ethan took the microphone again, a wicked gleam in his eye.<p>

"Get comfy, my friends. 'Cause if any one of you tries to escape or fight back, not everyone will get out of here alive." And Sam pulled a gun, grabbing Maria roughly by the shoulder. I signaled for the others to join me in the back. There was mass confusion until we heard a gunshot. Everyone froze, and we faced the stage. There stood Sam, Ethan, Emily, and Maria. Sam was holding a gun that had just shot into empty air, but he also had Maria trapped. Ethan had the microphone.

"All of the adults in the building are unconscious in a locked classroom. Right now I am sending a message to all of you and to your parents asking for a certain amount of money each. Once that's done we'll gladly let you go. Of course, to do that we'd need the Chaos Emeralds so we don't get caught. When Sonic comes barging in I'll take care of him. One wrong move, and Sam shoots my date. Got it?"

"Don't be so sure of yourself," I shouted, in human Sonic form to be less noticeable of a change. Ethan sneered and turned into human Scourge.

"Ah, I get ya, Sonic. Come on then. Fight me. Fang?" Sam pressed a button on what appeared to be a remote, simultaneously turning into a human Fang the Sniper (all I managed to register was his hair turning purple and a fang shooting out of his mouth). Robots made of scraps—so they'd raided Eggman's base—started marching in from the gym's supply closets and locker rooms. The other guys handled the robots, but Emily-turned-Fiona (a girl with bright red hair) was proving difficult for just one person to beat. She was fighting dirty, so all the girls started on her. Fang was backing away with Maria, but Shadow got to him first.

"Let her go. Only a coward would hide behind a little girl to get away." Fang dropped Maria, but she had nowhere to go because he was blocking the way to get the gym floor. She huddled against the side wall, trying not to be in the crossfire. I faced Scourge.

"I swear you will regret this," I growled, and we fought.

"You think I want to be the bad guy, Sonic? That I'm just trying to be evil for the sake of evil? Well let me tell you something. If you had one bad day. If you were out of luck. If you lost everything in a moment . . . You'd be just the same as me. And you know it." He punctuated his sentences with punches.

"And if you regretted one bad thing you did, then you'd be like me," I countered with a swift kick.

"I doubt that," he said angrily.

"You know I'm right."

"You know I am too," he said. A punch to the gut.

"What did you lose then, Scourge?" I asked, dodging another blow.

"Like I said. Everything. Now I'm taking anything I can, because I can't take back what's mine," he said fiercely. More fighting ensued.

Silver and Knuckles kept smashing robots, but they just kept coming at them in hordes. That is, until Tails dialed something on his wristband. An electric wave billowed out from him and a huge group of them died. Miles smirked slightly before trying again.

"Dammit!" shouted Fiona before taking another shot at Amy with her ninja-style staff. Amy had gotten a few hits off by them, and Rouge was distracting her.

And then Cream stepped in, healing Amy and Rouge at intervals. That's what gave them the edge that they needed.

Shadow faced Fang with a cold, almost sadistic stare.

"You're only a coward, Fang. You hide behind guns and knives to give yourself the advantage you need, because you know you can't really fight me. Isn't that right?" Fang glared at him.

"You've never fought with a gun, have you Shadow? I'll even the playing field." He tossed Shadow a gun, and picked up another from his other boot. Shadow laughed darkly.

"You shouldn't have given me this . . . You're going to lose."

Finally, I came at Scourge ruthlessly. He wouldn't win. He couldn't. And I had more of an idea.

"I lost something once, you know. I was eight. I watched my brother get kidnapped. Imagine that, and not seeing him for eight years."

"Imagine never wanting to see him again."

"Huh?"

"He lit the match when I was six. Now I'm lighting my own and becoming the legend that I thought he was." A wild look came over him. He was fighting furiously now, nonstop.

* * *

><p>Silver and Knuckles had smashed the robots to pieces now that Tails had short-circuited them. They began to sneak people out of the gym to the park where they'd be safe—Knuckles had punched a hole in the back door of the gym that was hidden by the bleachers. Fiona had gone ballistic, and the girls were having trouble with her again, constantly focused on just beating her.<p>

Maria looked on as Fang aimed and shot. Shadow dove out of the way just in time, and the bullet hit the wall behind him. Maria squeaked in fear. Still on the move at top speed, Shadow shot Fang's hat off his head. He skidded to a stop, smirking. He hadn't even been looking.

"Let's see if you can beat that, Fang." The Aussie lowered his gun, backing away. Shadow aimed the gun at his chest.

"I ought to shoot you, you know. Keep you from hurting anyone else ever again." And it looked as if he might. But Maria shouted.

"No, please, don't!" Shadow's eyes widened as he realized what he'd almost done. He'd almost become a murderer. He shifted his aim and shot the gun out of Fang's hand, damaging it beyond repair. Fang pulled a knife as Shadow got closer.

Maria dove for the knife, and suddenly Fang was weaponless, backed into a corner. Maria tossed the knife out of the way and tied Fang's wrists behind his back with the microphone cord. She grinned at Shadow.

"You're not the only one who can be a hero."

* * *

><p>I was frustrated. We were evenly matched down to the last detail. I had to do something.<p>

"Come on, Scourge. Ethan. Just because your brother lit a match and did something you hated doesn't mean you have to follow in his footsteps."

"I'm not following him," he growled, leaving a particularly nasty punch to my jaw to punctuate the sentence.

"Sure seems like it," I replied, and I got another slam to the stomach for it. A constant barrage of punches kept me busy, to say the least.

"Damn it," he muttered when I'd finally managed to slow him down, damaging the gym floor in the process. _Eh, no basketball during class at least!_ Fiona suddenly tossed a red device at us. He pressed a button and smirked at me.

Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds were floating around us, and Scourge was glowing red. For some reason, I wasn't going Super from them, too. He blasted me backwards, into the basketball hoops. Before I knew it, he had me pinned at the base of the stage. I was exhausted, sporting bruises everywhere. He had me at his mercy.

That was when Shadow tackled him, and Silver and Knuckles delivered a huge hit to my doppelganger from behind. It had little to no effect, besides getting him off of me. Scourge ripped the gun out of Shadow's hand and aimed it at me.

"_No! Sonic!_" Maria yelped. She was standing in front of me, arms flung wide to shield me from a bullet.

"Maria, get out of the way!" shouted Shadow desperately.

"No. I won't. Ethan, you don't have to do this anymore. Light a different kind of match—one for a candle, not for a fuse. Come on," she said, somewhere between pleading and demanding. Scourge faltered. I stared, shocked, as he dropped the gun, powered down, and fell to his knees. Maria ran to him and embraced him. Was he crying?

Fiona was livid. She took the staff that she'd been using and plunged it into the floor, splintering wood around her, and was out the door. The teachers had just been freed into the gym.

"Crap! That's a bomb!" said Scourge, suddenly standing.

"How long do we have to get out of range?"

"Not long enough. It's on a timer but the range'll take out the entire building and the property. Fiona may not look it, but she's smart when it comes to destruction," Scourge said, standing. "We can't disable it. We have to Chaos Control everyone here into the park."

"Everyone, grab hands! Now! Don't ask questions!" Maria shouted from her position next to Scourge. Within moments, everyone was in the brilliant flash of light that came from four simultaneous shouts of _Chaos Control_. The building was a demolished pile of flames and bricks. I looked on, shocked, as police sirens started towards the scene.

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><p><strong>Liked? Disliked? Et cetera? Scourge is a villain, yeah, but I had a thought in my head of him getting some redemption. And I wanted Maria to have some sort of involvement, being his date and all. The next chapter is also a long way off. But I hope you guys enjoyed the Scourge arc!<strong>

**Questions, Comments, Concerns, Criticisms? Review, and I'll address them all in a PM or in the next chapter!**

**Sorry again about the long time between updates. Sorry in advance for the next long time, because I know it's going to happen...**

**See ya!**

**-Flute Chick**


	18. 18: Changing Skies

**I know it's short, kinda establishing the scene for what's coming up. School's super busy, especially now that I'm a senior. I'll try my best to update-this story is coming to an end soon! I'm writing as I go, so in between marching band, applications, my first AP class, and life in general, things get hectic. Thank you so much for the support even though I take forever!**

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><p>The police were at the scene fairly quickly, along with some private investigators. I wasn't sure what to say—Ethan had given up in the end, hadn't he? But he grinned tiredly.<p>

"I'm turning myself in, officers. I'm the one who planned the events that led to the students being taken hostage. I'm Scourge. I'll give back what I stole the best I can, and I'll tell you what I know. I'm done being the bad guy." He willingly got handcuffed and gave specific descriptions of Fang and Fiona and the place they'd been using as a hideout.

"I'm shocked at the sudden change of heart from the kind of guy that did what he did," Officer Drummond sighed, now at the police station.

"Sir, we've told you a ton of times already—matters dealing with people connected to Chaos should be dealt with through the Chaotix. We know what we're doing," Ross tried to convince the man.

"We still have to do this through the parameters of the law," the policeman replied.

"Listen to him, Ross. Sorry sir. Just let us know when something like this happens. We understand the law as well as the situations involved." The shorter man gave the officer a business card, and they left.

"Hey, kid," Officer Drummond said to Ethan, "You look familiar. Are you from Soleanna, by chance? About two miles south of here?" Ethan tensed, but nodded.

"Yeah. Ethan McArthur. Or Scourge. Whichever you need to put in the books." The policeman frowned.

"Don't I . . . Ethan, of course! Well, it all makes sense now . . . I'll get you over to my office and we'll talk, okay? Remember me at all?" Ethan frowned.

"No, I don't."

"I'm the one who took care of the arson case." Ethan looked again in recognition. His expression softened, then set like stone once again.

"Don't . . . don't let Fiona and Fang get away. They're dangerous as well, even if they worked under me. I'm sorry."

"Eh, kid, you may not realize it, but from what Sonic told me, you helped out in the end. Without you, lots of people would be dead. I don't know why you changed your mind, but you know what? Doesn't matter. If you behave, get things done, do your time as you need, then you're fine. Might even get you out quick with Sonic and his gang as your parole supervisors. You could do some 'community service' and help the town out with them." Ethan thought for a minute.

"If it's all right sir . . . I'd rather not. I could get tempted again. Having the Chaos Emeralds anywhere near me . . . when I went Super . . . they sent me into a frenzy. I don't want to do that again."

"Why don't we have you do the same thing with a police officer in another town, then? Will that work out? We'll still need to work out the details, but I'll try to make it happen." Ethan frowned, but nodded.

"That could work. Thanks." _Light a different kind of match._ Yeah. He'd take Maria's advice.

* * *

><p>Finally, summer vacation rolled around. We all got together whenever we could, just to hang out most of the time. There wasn't much crime to deal with—people probably got it through their heads not to mess with us if they could stand it. We were at Miles's house when the news started.<p>

"Reports of an anomaly of the 'red comet' are being reported by scientists as of late. The comet appears very rarely. It is unlikely that it will cause any harm upon entering the Earth's atmosphere in the next week, but many speculate that it will cause a big stir in environmental changes. Scott, your thoughts?" Damon turned off the TV, glaring at the screen.

"Not happening. I am not going to turn into a crazy maniac with no memories of so much as being friends with you guys. Nuh-uh." Elaine turned to him.

"Don't worry. I'll remind you if that happens—even if you don't believe me."

"You might not even get amnesia. My bet is that you'll get some new information that will make you question yourself, but I doubt—"

"Not the best time, Miles," I whispered. Damon wasn't happy. He shook his head.

"No, it's fine . . . I just get a bad feeling. This isn't the Black Arms, as far as we know. I've found everything there is to know about myself . . . right?"

"We don't know that. We also don't know if this is even the comet we think it is. Don't worry too much about it, hon," said Scarlet, patting his head and leaving the room.

Days later, we were called on yet another mission. Robots were attacking- but they weren't the usual mini ones on the loose from Eggman's old base. They were fully equipped military machines.

"Hey," Shadow frowned as we approached them, "Those are G.U.N bots."

_Destroy. Destroy._ One of them beeped, proclaiming in a grating metallic voice. It was easy to get rid of the first couple, but the big one didn't let us get close enough to get a hit in.

"Omega! Protocol 6! Restart!" shouted Rouge suddenly. The robot stopped and folded in on itself until it was a small metal piece about the size of a Nintendo DS-in fact, it looked a lot like one. She picked it up and handed it to Shadow.

"Keep this thing safe, will you?"

"Seriously?!" John asked about ten minutes later at a park bench where we all were.

"I was hired by G. U. N. recently. I work as a paid intern in their tech department," she shrugged.

* * *

><p>People were disappearing, and Officer Drummond now had to call in the Chaotix. Particularly one missing person had them on edge.<p>

"Joseph Iblis has escaped from prison."

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><p><strong>Well, now that that little thing has happened . . .<strong>

**Question:**

**If Sonic Generations is going to be a thing, should the current Eric be "classic" Sonic so he can get a glimpse of his adult self, or should a version of him from right before he became Sonic come into play?**

**Let me know what you think. I've really struggled with deciding on that one. **

**See y'all later!**

**Flute Chick**


	19. 19: Trouble in Time

**Well, it's running down, isn't it? Almost at the end. Just a few chapters left. Don't worry, still got some to go. I know I don't update often . . . life gets in the way, huh? To make up for it, I have two chapters ready!**

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><p>I was on my usual run, checking the nearby towns for any extra activity. There was a fire in the city of Soleanna, started by Iblis's rogue bots during a parade. I put out the fire, no trouble, but the robots weren't like the scrap heaps that got loose on occasion . . . it was like they were new.<p>

In seconds I was hit in the back of the head, and knew no more.

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><p>Shadow, Rouge, and Omega were working on their first mission together. More robots, more work—but so far, there wasn't any trouble. Then some sound echoed through the area. Rather than going away, though, it got louder. Laughter. Deep, demonic laughter.<p>

"Who's there?"

"Don't remember me, Shadow? I'm afraid I'll have to remedy that. But I can't afford to let anyone get in the way this time. This will be my revenge." It echoed from everywhere, a disembodied evil. A floating, inky creature began to form in front of Shadow. A purple light flashed, and then there was nothing.

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><p>Silver and Blaze were researching disappearances—specifically, theirs, and Eggman's. Where could they have gone? And where was he now?<p>

"Got anything? At all?" Blaze asked.

"Iblis's disappearance would normally suggest a plot. But what's strange is no one's been able to find him—and he isn't exactly conspicuous," Silver replied.

"I may have an answer," said a whispering male voice.

"Hm?" A teen walked out of the alley—Silver shuddered, for it was the alley that he'd disappeared in so long ago.

The guy had kinda greasy black hair and a thick leather jacket. His eyes were an odd green—sickly looking. But his face looked a lot like Shadow's, despite his lips being so pale they were almost imperceptible.

"But in order to do so, I must open your eyes to what you truly did in the other world—in the future," he said. Silver's eyes widened.

"That couldn't have been the future! Everything was destroyed!" The guy smirked.

"Maybe my name will remind you of it all. My name is Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark."

* * *

><p>Everything was frozen, black and white, and utterly creepy.<p>

"Hey! Anyone out there?" I asked. "HEY!" Just an echo. I was in Green Hills Valley, the nearest prairie preserve. I was in color, thank goodness-my sight hadn't gone away. I was human Sonic right then, and there was no one around.

"What's going on . . . which game . . ." I muttered.

"Who're you?" a voice behind me asked. I spun around to find—Eric Sarali, scrawny kid who'd never dreamed of being a hero.

"Oh. My. God." I stared for a minute. That was me.

"Uh . . . how do I explain this?" I scratched my head.

"You're Sonic the Hedgehog. Right? Sonic in real life," mini me said. I was a good couple of inches taller than him, and he wouldn't recognize me, I was sure of it, even if I went back to normal.

"More than that. I'm not just a hedgehog, as you can probably tell. I'm also a normal person. Look . . . uh . . . I think Eggman pulled some time travel strings. I know you, and you're not in the right time period."

" . . . what the . . ." he stared at me.

"My thoughts exactly. We've got to get moving. Looks like we have to save the world."

* * *

><p>Silver and Blaze gasped, even as Mephiles melted into black ooze and disappeared. Immediately, new memories surfaced of their past that had been fuzzy before.<p>

_Six-year-old Jason screamed. There was fire everywhere, and the only people there were a little girl his age and a teen with slicked back hair. Mephiles. _

_"W-what's going on?" whimpered Jason. _

_"Sh, it's okay. I'm here to help you. I'm Mephiles." _

_The teen helped them turn into a hedgehog and a cat, trained them with their powers, and raised them for a month or so. Then he left them in the hands of a band of humans for some time. _

_Years passed, and Mephiles sometimes visited and helped them out. He said little, but he saved them from the fire on many occasions. _

_And then one day . . . he took them to an abandoned factory that still had some old working machinery. _

_"There is a reason this world is coated in fire. The spirit of fire and doom, Iblis, was set free by someone in the distant past. He was the Iblis Trigger—a blue hedgehog that could outrun sound itself. There is a way we can end the horrible destruction, though." Mephiles pulled out two glowing gems. _

_"The Chaos Emeralds. You told us about them some years ago, right? They can allow travel between time and space." _

_"Precisely. There are seven of them in existence—and I have found two." _

_"Then . . . we can stop this all from happening!" Blaze concluded. _

_"I can bring you to the past where this all started. But, in case you run into another version of yourself, I have to disguise you slightly. Can't have people running into their past selves and causing a paradox by knowing it."_

_"And how would you do that?" Silver didn't like the idea of deceiving anyone. _

_"Just an illusion to set you apart. . You won't feel a thing."_ _Suddenly, Silver had markings on his face and arms that glowed like when he used his psychokinesis, just like Mephiles explained. _

_"Find a blue hedgehog. He is the Iblis Trigger, the destroyer of the world—obliterate him, and this future may not happen. Here." He handed Silver one of the Chaos Emeralds. Silver and Mephiles crossed arms, holding the emeralds. _

_"Blaze, please keep things safe here while we are gone. _

_"Chaos—Control!"_

Silver turned to Blaze—"We've got to help them."

* * *

><p>I ran and ran and ran, now human Sonic, and I had to carry younger me on my back.<p>

"This is _so_ weird . . ." he said. We were in town before he finished the sentence.

"You're telling me. You get used to it though. If there's a fight, don't get hurt." Everything was still in black and white. _So Sonic Generations, then? I could have sworn the comet meant Black Doom . . ._ Tails ran out from a street corner. "Sonic! And—Eric?!" he stared. "Um, what's going on?"

"I could ask you, buddy. Have you seen anyone else around?"

"No. So—um—"

"Hey, Tails, uh, I'm Eric Sarali. From the past, apparently."

"I can see that." Suddenly, a table went flying past my head, just missing.

"What the—Silver?" It was him, but it wasn't. He looked shorter, and had weird tribal tattoo markings all over him. He glared at me.

"How do you know my name?"

"More time travel problems," Tails confirmed, "Silver, do you know who we are?"

"I know that the blue hedgehog is responsible for all of this!" he snarled.

"What? No! I have no idea what's going on here!" He shook his head.

"Argh, don't lie to me!" And with that, he threw a manhole cover at my head. If I wasn't so fast, then I would have been decapitated.

"Sonic! We should get out of here," Tails warned. Eric—past me—had followed my earlier advice and hid behind a tree.

"Tails, stay back," I warned, cracking my knuckles and dodging another piece of metal.

* * *

><p>Amy was confused. No one was around. Suddenly, she heard yelling. She ran down the alley she had woken up in and stopped to find a kid hiding behind a trash can—Eric? But he looked different, like he was before they'd all found the Chaos Emeralds.<p>

"Hey, Eric," Amy asked, still confused.

"Amy?" he looked so relieved, but still nervous. "Are you from the past with me or are you with Sonic and Tails?" he asked. He was so scared. Amy didn't change into hedgehog form, but she sighed.

"I'm with Tails and Sonic. Remember Amy Rose?" His eyes widened. "Then . . . Tails . . . _Miles?_" She nodded.

"Then who is Sonic?" He definitely didn't seem to guess it was him. Not confident enough to believe anything like that.

"He didn't tell you? That's not like him." But as Amy frowned, she knew better. Eric was scared—scared that his past self wouldn't accept what he would become, and scared that he wasn't hero enough.

"Don't worry too much about it," she shook her head, "Right now we've got to help them. Silver is our friend—but he doesn't know that yet. You've played Next Gen, right?" He nodded.

"That's kinda what's going on . . . sort of."

"Let's go."

* * *

><p>I was trying not to hurt Silver, but Silver was most definitely trying to hurt me. I wanted to just give up—everything I tried to explain didn't work. He had no idea—just kept at it.<p>

"The future is up in flames because of you!" he said.

"No—It's not me—I don't even know what you've seen or what this is about. I woke up with the world in black and white with Eric—" He stopped in his tracks.

"What did you do to Eric?"

"Nothing, he ran when the fight got rough-"

"What did you do with him!" he shouted, ignoring me. He was glowing like crazy, and the concrete around him was coming up.

"Hold up, hold up, I didn't—" He sent a flurry of chunks of asphalt and metal at me, and one piece caught me in the head. The world spun and shook. When everything stopped moving, he stood over me.

"It's over now," he said, preparing a sharp piece of rock to save the future.

"_Silver! Stop! JASON!_" Amy's voice rang out, and I looked over to see her and mini me, staring in shock at the hedgehog.

"Amy, Eric, get out of here," I warned, "He's not the same Jason we know," I added. Meanwhile, Silver stared.

"Eric? Amy?" Eric stopped dead in his tracks.

"Jason?"

* * *

><p>Shadow woke up with Rouge and Omega at his side. They were in a dilapidated factory, but it was clear that some of the computers still worked. Rouge immediately hacked the nearest one to see what was going on.<p>

"I think we're in the future. This date on the computer . . . it's hundreds of years from our time!" she exclaimed.

"Hey, who's there?" called a familiar voice. Blaze.

"Blaze? Eliza?" called Rouge. The cat came through the doorway.

"Who are you," she asked, glaring.

"Shadow, Rouge, and this robot is Omega. Blaze-"

"How do you know me?" she demanded.

"Chaos control can allow time travel, can't it?" Rouge said, exasperated. "We've known you for a while, but you haven't met us yet. Can you tell us what's going on?" Blaze was silent for a minute.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Rouge then told Omega to shrink. Shadow sighed.

"You were tossed through a portal when you were six into this time right? This isn't your real home. You know that. Mephiles brought us here without our permission. Hm . . . all that fire outside. Is this what the world comes to?" Blaze looked at him.

"Every day we fight for our lives. The fire demon sometimes attacks, and other days the lava and crumbling world is enough to almost kill us. Sometimes dark creatures crawl up during the night and we can get no sleep. But sometimes Mephiles jumps in and teaches us about our powers or brings us to a troupe of humans that are also trying to survive. He comes and goes. Silver is naïve, and thinks that doing what Mephiles says is right because he always helps us. I'm not so sure. If he has the power to save us and to block off Iblis, the demon, then why doesn't he fight it? Why doesn't he help more? I feel as though that blue hedgehog he showed us isn't evil at all . . . and if Silver does the deed he intends to, we may be in more trouble than I thought . . ."

Rouge grimaced. "Honey, you have no idea. If Sonic, that blue hedgehog dies . . . I don't think any of us could make it.

"Much as I hate to say it, I agree," said Shadow. "Rouge, G. U. N. headquarters likely has some leftover Chaos trackers, even in this age, hidden away somewhere. We might be able to fix things."

"I'll help," said Blaze," I'd rather not sit around and hold on to this building. I know where that old place is. Let's move."

* * *

><p><strong>Any good? Will the future be saved? <strong>

**I'm posting the next chapter ASAP-Happy Thanksgiving!**


	20. The Dark Time Eater

**Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a second chapter for the holiday!**

* * *

><p>Silver dropped his hands, completely in shock. I scrambled back.<p>

"You . . . then this is our real time?"

"Sort of," said Eric, "I'm from a couple years before now. But you have to trust me that Sonic's the good guy here. I don't know who he is, but Amy and Miles are on his side, so . . ."

"He's the Iblis Trigger, the one that causes everything to fall apart in the future! That's what Mephiles told me." Eric shook his head.

"No. Mephiles . . . he's promising you everything only so he can destroy everything around you even more. Sonic can help you save the world. He wouldn't destroy it."

"You don't even know who he is," Silver accused. I stood.

"Jason, you've just got to get back to the future . . . Have you still got a Chaos Emerald?"

"Sure." I pulled mine out. He backed away. I sighed, exasperated.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you. You've got to get back home. What if Blaze is in trouble? You can't tell me you aren't worried," I said. He faltered.

"Uh . . ."

* * *

><p>Shadow, Rouge, and Blaze arrived at the G. U. N. building. But it wasn't what they'd expected.<p>

"What is this?" Rouge muttered, seeing a huge metal door with the Black Arms symbol spray painted on it. Shadow went to the key lock.

"It's on permanent lockdown. We only put dangerous creatures and toxic waste there to be studied by the highest officials on rare occasions," Rouge said, "I don't get it. What does it mean?"

"You don't want to know?" asked a deep male voice. Mephiles walked out of the shadows. They all backed up, taking defensive stances.

"I'm not going to do anything. What use have I for this devastated future?" he said, gesturing to the open door and the ever-present orange light of lava.

"Then what do you want? Why did you send Silver back?" Mephiles grinned.

"To set in motion the events that create me. Me, the Dark . . . yes, I would like to exist. And then I would like to consume everything that would defy me. But perhaps I ought to explain myself to _you_, Shadow. You of all people ought to see my way. Blaze, Rouge, stay out here for a moment . . ."

"Uh . . ."

* * *

><p>"I think I can help with that," said another voice, one I knew very well. I sighed in relief.<p>

"Silver," cheered Amy, as the brother I knew so well sped down the street.

"Wait—you're _me_?"

"I am. Sonic's not the evil one. Look, you've gotta go back—Blaze and Rouge don't know that Shadow is in deep trouble. Shadow looks a lot like Mephiles. Make sure you get them out of there, then fight the fire demon. That way Shadow and Rouge can get back here to help us out. Don't trust Mephiles. He's evil as can be, using you to get what he wants."

"You're Jason, too?" Eric asked.

"Yup," grinned Silver, "I've been here for a while now. That demon isn't due for another few hundred years. . . sorry that you don't get to chat with Eric. You'll get plenty of that in a few weeks, when you get back to this world for good. Don't give up, mini me, but let's go." The two of them crossed arms with the Chaos Emeralds in hand.

"Chaos Control!"

* * *

><p>Mephiles led Shadow into the high-security area. It was empty except for a stasis pod that was gathering dust. The room smelled like formaldehyde.<p>

"Who's that dangerous?" Shadow asked, though he already knew.

"The normal humans found out that you were artificial. They found out things about you that even _you_ didn't know—that you were injected with the organic material found in the red comet many years ago. That red comet has living beings within it. They aren't any more sentient than an ant, but they were indeed alien. They also had traces of unknown substances in their makeup.

"You were created as a weapon, Shadow. A chemical and physical weapon. Easy to control, after all, you've been training with G. U. N. since you were little. If anyone got the right chemicals injected into you, you could secrete enough poison to kill half the world in a week, and you would be fine. If someone controlled you well enough, you could take out the other half yourself—aren't you a sharpshooter and a living bomb? People began to realize that. But you don't have to be frozen away, an arsenal locked up."

Mephiles wiped the dust off of the pod, revealing Shadow's sleeping face.

"They feared you, and you let them lock you up. Why don't you take advantage of that fear, Shadow? Join me. Squash Stone and all the others that think of you as a nuke instead of a person."

Shadow stared at the pod. He glanced around the room and then squeezed his eyes shut, as well as his fists. He imagined it—ruling the world and all. He'd be terrible at it. And he'd rather not be a puppet to anyone. He knew that he was made as a weapon—but there was also another thing he knew.

"Stone never controlled me, faker, and neither will you," he smirked, chuckling. "The scar on my face is enough to prove that. And this future just doesn't exist for me. Because I won't let anyone turn me into anything that I'm not. If I had to be locked up, I hopped in the pod myself. But my friends would have busted me out. And you're just a petty devil on my shoulder, trying to make me think otherwise." He laughed, and pointed at Mephiles who looked so much like him. He spoke his mind.

"You're nothing." And punched Mephiles in the face.

* * *

><p>The group of them began to patrol the town, trying to find some semblance of a cause. They met again on Main Street—empty handed.<p>

"There's got to be something," Eric said. "I wish the entire group was here. Then we could all figure this out." A crash and explosion sounded from around the corner.

"You guys having issues too? I grabbed everyone I could find. And things are starting to turn sort of normal outside the city limits. Think maybe someone is leading us on, trying to get us to follow their plan." It was Scourge, grinning not so cruelly. With him, he had Knuckles, Cream, the Chaotix team, and Blaze. Also, a bunch of robots were following them.

"Seriously? Robots?" groaned Eric.

"Gotcha buddy. Just keep off of their radar. And don't be scared of Scourge, he's on our side. Sonic, you got this?" Tails said, grabbing my younger self by the shoulders and hovering away.

It was a swarm of them—all things I'd faced before, but there were _so many._

"Come on," I growled, "I need two of me to deal with this." And I heard a sudden war cry—my younger self with an aluminum baseball bat, swinging with all his might, knocking off the head of one Badnik.

"Thanks," I said, giving him a thumbs-up.

"No problem. Duck!" I did, and the fist of another robot just missed my head.

Tails flew near Eric, in case he needed any help. Blaze, Silver, and Knuckles held their own at the intersection, with Blaze keeping some at bay, Silver doing range shots, and Knuckles smashing anything left. It was cool, the all-out battle, but it seemed endless. Scourge watched my back, and I watched his.

"Man, this is endless. What's going on?" he grunted.

"Everything we've faced is coming back at us," I growled.

"Eggman sending everything back at us again?" suggested mini me.

"Iblis is gonna pay," said Tails, sending an electric pulse through the bots.

"_DIE YOU HUNKS OFMETAL!"_

* * *

><p>Mephiles and Shadow fought for their lives. But Mephiles was winning, and Rouge and Blaze had no idea. Until Silver returned.<p>

"We have to help Shadow. He's in serious trouble," he said immediately.

"Got it, hon," Rouge grinned, engaging Omega for battle and roundhouse kicking the door in.

"You're done, Dark," shouted Blaze, hands igniting.

"No. It has only just begun. My creator has officially made me in the past—using some of Shadow's DNA. Now I can take the frozen world that has only a few left to defend it. Thank you for your assistance." He melted into black ooze and seeped through the floor.

"Let's get out of here," said Rouge.

"Sorry Silver, Blaze. We've got to help the two of you from our time. And we have to beat Mephiles to a pulp."

"All right. Thanks for your help, you two," Rouge said, giving each of them a hug and kissing Silver on the cheek. He blushed bright red.

"Keep those demons down, got it?"

* * *

><p>"<em>DIE YOU HUNKS OF METAL!"<em>

And Omega's machine guns and Shadow and Rouge joined the fight.

"Hey, I think they're almost gone," said Tails. And he was right. They were almost gone.

"Don't let your guard down," Silver said.

But when the robots were all gone, there was nothing else.

"All right, regroup. What's happened?"

"Mephiles tried to get me to go at his side. I gave him a black eye."

"Little Eric came from before we all changed."

"The robots are crazy."

"Iblis escaped prison—he has to be behind this." As they all caught up with each other, Eric was dazed. He couldn't understand it all, still in awe of the battle he'd just witnessed. No one noticed the black ooze. But when Sonic suddenly collapsed, everyone noticed.

"Wait—Sonic!" cried Amy.

"This is what I needed. The life force of your hero," laughed Mephiles. He began to crystalize, becoming skeletal with black markings and strange red eyes. A ragged purple cape hung off of his shoulders as he grinned.

"_This is the end,"_ he said, and the sky darkened.

"SONIC!" they all cried out. Except Amy, who looked over at Eric, who had backed away.

"No . . . he's not dead yet . . ." She put a hand to the injured, blue-haired body. Sonic the Human was not breathing there. She looked around.

"His soul is still here. Just not in his body. He's with each of us. He's alive. Knuckles, use the Master Emerald to call of the Chaos Emeralds here." Knuckles looked on at Sonic, then up at Eric, and understood. "On it."

"You haven't taken Sonic from us," Miles shook his head, using a remote to call in his plane.

"_Is that so?"_ chuckled Mephiles. "The puny kid isn't going to help, you know. He's _nothing to me. I am Mephiles the Dark. I am the Time Eater_. Everything that exists I consume, and everything humanity has known is but oblivion. _**And that oblivion is me**_." He snapped his fingers, and the city was rubble. Everyone gasped. He grinned.

"I think I'll look for my creator to congratulate him on my creation. Don't wait up." And he teleported away.

"What kind of power is this?" Shadow growled. Eric screamed.

"We . . . we can't . . . we're gonna die," he said, shaking in fear.

"No, we're not," Silver said, "If I have anything to say about it. We'll go down fighting. That's how Sonic would do it, huh?"

"Sonic's _gone_, Jason," Eric told him, gesturing to the body on the ground.

"That's not true-"

"Don't give me that crap. This isn't a stupid movie. He's _dead_."

"_Yeah, not really_." Was that the wind? Eric wondered.

"Sonic?" asked Miles. No answer.

"Everyone heard that, right?"

"Yeah. I did," Eric said, looking around.

"_Mephiles consumed my life force, right? I'm just trapped."_

"There it is again! Sonic's alive!"

"And I got the Chaos Emeralds! We're still in this," grinned Knuckles, joining the band of fighters again.

* * *

><p>Everyone from their time gathered around the Chaos Emeralds and began to glow. Eric hefted Sonic into his arms and dragged him closer into the circle.<p>

"Y'know, he can't fight," Eric muttered, "But I doubt he'd want to miss this."

"He wouldn't," said Miles, smiling. "Eric . . . you _do_ know who he is, right?" Eric had had an idea, but dismissed it.

"Nah, not a clue. But you guys seem to trust him, so I figure he's as good, if not better, than the Sonic from the games. A good guy, right?" They all nodded.

"We can still have Sonic in the fight," Shadow said looking around the circle.

"How?" asked Cream.

"Eric . . . if he's up to the challenge . . ." Eric's brow furrowed.

"What? What could I do? Sure, I'll revive Sonic if I can, but I don't think I can."

"Not that, you idiot," said Rouge, rolling her eyes. "Hon, Sonic is someone you know _very_ well. Think."

"Well, Miles is Tails, Amy is Amy Rose . . . and Jason is Silver . . . then . . ." His jaw dropped and he looked down at Sonic again, a new realization dawning on him.

"I'm Sonic?"

"Yes, you are."

"I . . . I can't possibly fight this . . . I'm just a kid."

"We're all kids here, Eric. What day was it, when you appeared in this crazy future?" Eric replied with the date that they all received their powers.

"See, that's when we all got our powers. That's when you could turn into a hedgehog and all that. It happened _that day._ Look. We're all people you know, or will know soon." In many flashes of light, Eric was surrounded by people he knew all too well.

"We had to keep fighting. We had to have these powers for a reason. So we use them—and I won't let anyone destroy the universe as long as I'm still breathing," said Jason, turning back into Silver.

"Just imagine being Sonic and say 'Chaos Transformation'. Go ahead," Blaze encouraged.

Eric took a deep breath.

"We could all still die. But at least we have a chance to fight together," Shadow said.

"Better to fight and lose for something worth it than to give up," Eric agreed. He took a Chaos Emerald, and, as an afterthought, put the hand of his older self on the emerald as well.

* * *

><p>"<em>Chaos-"<em>

_ "-Transformation!"_ And it was like Eric's voice was doubled. And the flash of light was especially bright—to reveal Classic Sonic, and . . .

* * *

><p>"Here you thought I was gone. Well let's go kick some Mephiles ass—I'm <em>waiting!<em>" I grinned.

* * *

><p><strong>Now all we need is an epic boss battle! But I don't have it written yet, so you'll have to wait. Maybe over winter break. We'll see. <strong>

**See you all later!**

**Flute Chick**


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